Exile's Son
by margrave-of-the-stars
Summary: What happens to Imperial Admiral Voss Parck's son when his father is exiled to the Unknown Regions with Thrawn? Its done! Thanks to everybody who read this and please keep up the reviews. Let me know if you want to read more as I have tons of ideas.
1. Chapter 1

STAR WARS

EXILE'S SON

Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own Star Wars, and obviously I am not George Lucas, although based on the novels this is not canon.

Chapter 1

Xander Parck stopped dead in his tracks, the slidway continued on its path. Up above him he had seen the bulletin on one of the many scrolling vid screens around the area. Anger welled deep within his stomach, anger and fear. It had started a while ago. The speaking out in Palpatine's court, going against the Emperors word. Xander had seen it coming; he had hoped he could have completed his term at the Academy before something happened. Admiral Thrawn and Captain Voss Parck were being sent on a mapping expedition in the Unknown Regions, a virtual form of exile, and no doubt the judgment would be handed down to Xander as well.

To go back to for his afternoon classes at the Academy would just cause problems, they would probably have Stormtroopers waiting for him. Quickly Xan jumped over to the slidway going the opposite direction, back towards his dorm. He had to clear out, and clear out fast. The Imperial cadet began to move faster towards his dorm, pushing aside slower moving traffic, especially the native Caridans. They expected the cadets to be pushy; the Empire looked down on alien species and made no excuses for it.

The planets heavier than standard gravity was having a little affect on Xander, after all the physical training for starship technicians weren't quiet as rigorous as what the Stormtroopers had to. His endurance wasn't the same but he could lift just as much. If he were lucky the other cadets assigned to his dorm would already be back at the shop class. That would be good; he could get a pack together, and grab some essentials before the others would be out of the shop. From there, he didn't know what he would do.

Just as he'd thought the dorm room was empty. Xander sealed the door and pealed off his tech jumpsuit, and stuffed it into a pack. In his closest he pulled out his clean gray dress uniform and put that on. Fastening the belt with the pair of holstered blasters gave him a sense of added security. They had been a gift from his father upon being accepted into the Imperial Academy. Although there'd been no doubt that he would get accepted, his father was a Star Destroyer Captain after all. They had been custom built, and were more lethal than even BlasTech DL-44s.

Xander cleaned out anything from his locker that might do the Empire any good in finding him. He also grabbed all the spare blaster packs that he could find in the room, surely his roommates would understand. Their wasn't much in the room in terms of survival gear, and their was very little food, just a couple of ready meals. Xander packed the food on top and headed from the dorm. He passed by a few officers and other cadets, although none of them knew him.

He made it all the way to the hangar bay where his Corellian YT-2000 freighter was waiting, and that was the first place he ran into trouble. Xander spotted them a long ways off, a pair Storm troopers, clad in shinning white plaststeel armor, blaster carbines held across their chests. Quiet a few thoughts crossed his mind, no doubt he could kill them, but getting past the TIEs and sentry ships wouldn't happen, at least not in the middle of the day. There was an other approach, and it was the one he was going to try.

He pulled the bill of his cap down a little further, and began to walk over to the entrance to the bay with his head down. Neither of the troopers said anything. Xander punched in the code that he had been assigned for the bay; it didn't work, so he punched the keys again. A buzzer sounded telling him that it wasn't a valid code.

"What's going on here?" Xander mumbled, to neither of the guards inparticular, as he punched the keys again.

"The ship in this bay has been impounded." One of the troopers said, in the slightly mechanical voice of a person speaking through the helmets comm.

Xander tilted his head up too look at the docking bay number, it was a bluff, but the troopers could be fooled. "Stang, wrong bay." He said and headed off in the other direction.

This was bad. If he didn't get off Carida soon the troops would be after him and he'd be on his way to the Unknown Regions with his father. And that was the furthest thing from what he wanted. He dropped into one of the nearby tapcafes and sat down at the bar, pack at his feet. There was nothing to do at the moment, except sit and think about how he was going to get back to Katal.

"What about my son?"

"He will be with us soon enough. I've had his ship impounded, and as soon as he shows up to class his instructor will send him the administration, and they'll ship him here."

"How long before we're supposed to leave, sir."

"Your son will be with us before we set out for the Unknown Regions. I've eliminated entire cultures, and defeated countless armies. One young cadet should be no problem."

"Yes, sir."

"We leave in four days to answer your question."

"Thank you, sir."

Haara walked into the tapcafe not completely sure why she had chosen that one, not even sure why she had decided to go for a drink except for a whim that had hit her while studying. The door automatically closed behind her. The tapcafe was dimly lit, music playing through speakers scattered around the dinning room and the bar played music that Haara liked, except she liked any music that involved a Kloo horn, since she did play one. The clientel wasn't to varied, for the most part spacers and Imperial Cadets, and officers. Most of them rabalrouseing and having a good time. Nice and loud, they all looked like they were having fun, all accept one. Sitting at the bar was a young cadet, about her own age, looking rather good in his dress uniform and hat.

For no reason other than that quozie voice at the back of her mind telling her to, she went over to him and sat down. Up close he was just as handsome, except for a few minor things. He had dark hair, sort of long for an Imperial cadet, with thick side burns that turned a deep auburn red near the bottom, she didn't like the side burns. The tightness in the uniform showed that he was obviously in good shape, strong looking.

His face though, troubled, despair, she could see it in those nice blue eyes that sparkled. But those hands, dirty, greasy hands. That would have to change. She could see dirt or something under the nails on the hand clutching a glass of some alcoholic beverage.

"Hello." She said taking up the stool next to him. "Could I buy you a drink?"

"Already got one." He said darkly, and took an other sip.

"In that case would you like to buy me?" She said coyly.

"Why not?" He flagged the bartender and signaled for an other drink. The bartender complied and placed a full glass down in front of Haara. It was clear goldish in color but smelt like rubbing alcohol.

"What is this?" She asked making a face. A face that she knew usually made men laugh, but not him. What's bothering him, she thought.

"Wookie rum." The cadet said matter of factely. It was funny watching her sip the liqueur; she almost spat it out, and made a face even worse than when she'd smelt it.

"So what's your name?" She asked. She had to know who he was before she could help him.

"Xan." Was all he said, and he took and other drink.

"Xan what?"

"Just Xan."

"Alright, so where are you off to?" Haara asked.

"Home, eventually."

"Not much of a talker are you, Xan? Where's home?"

"Sorry. You should try talking to anybody else in this place. Guaranteed they'd be more fun than I will." Xan said.

"So why won't you be fun. I'm sure you can think of something we can enjoy."

"Not if you value your neck." Xan finally turned to the women asking him all these questions. She was about his age, a little younger, shorter too. She looked up at him with big blue eyes underneath shining brown hair, and above a cutely freckled face. She had blonde highlights on either side of her face. She smiled at him, finally getting a smile from Xan in return.

"So where are you going?" She asked again.

"Hold on, what's your name?" Xan asked. Good, she was making headway. Now about those sideburns.

"Haara Bluestar." She answered. "So where are you from?"

"Katal, in the Corbata system."

"Where?"

"Don't worry, there's no reason you should know about it." Xan answered.

"So why do you have your pack in here? Shouldn't it be on your ship, or are you waiting for a transport?"

"Ha. My ships been impounded." Xan laughed sardonically.

"Why?"

"Huh," he laughed again, "that's what happens when your father causes trouble for the Empire."

"What did he do?"

"It doesn't matter, I just have to get off this planet. I have to get home." Xan took a long swig and nearly drained what was left of his rum.

"I could take you." Haara offered.

"No you can't." Xan said with a little force behind his voice.

"Why not, I have a ship."

"That's not the problem. If they figure out that you helped me leave Carida you'll be in just as much trouble as I will. I can't let you do that, especially since I hardly know you."

"You could get to know me on the way to Katal." She said, with a smile.

"Thanks, but I'd better get going. I stay to long and they've got me, and I don't want you caught in the crossfire when I shoot my way past a squad of Stormtroopers." Normally Xan wouldn't have said anything like that to a person he'd just met, especially since he couldn't tell weather she was an Imperial agent or not. But he trusted her, for some mysterious reason Xan trusted her.

"I'd like to see you again." She said as he retreated from the bar.

"No you don't. I'm not even sure I want to see me again."

"I'll find Katal, and then I'll find you." She warned him jokingly

"Stranger things have happened." He said, thinking about what his father and Thrawn had done, gone against the Emperor himself, not to mention the fact that his father had decided to align himself with a non-human. Given the Empires views on non-humans it was amazing that one had gotten so high in rank in the Imperial Navy. Xander didn't necessarily agree with these ideas. Being a Star Destroyer Captains son he had privy to all the technical readouts, and had decided at a young age that he would live longer if he went along with the prejudice. And those who openly opposed the Empire had a tendency to disappear, or be exiled.

Xander had been in the tapcafe longer than he'd thought, outside it had already gone dark. This would help hide him from the casual observer, but the Stormies had vision enhancers built into their helmets, and if they had holos of him, they'd be able to identify him. For the most part he walked with his head down, trying to keep an eye out for patrols. He was watching the duracrete glide past under foot when he accidentally bumped into someone. He looked up quickly, and found he was face to face with an other Imperial cadet, Xan didn't recognize him, but that was no guarantee that the other didn't recognize Xan.

"Sorry." Xan offered quickly. "I'm just in a bit of a hurry to get off this planet."

"Why is that?" The other cadet asked.

"My mother is very sick, and I have to get home to take care of her." Xander thought it was an alright excuse, he wasn't expecting the reply that came.

"Where are you going? The main docking bays are back there." The other cadet pointed out.

"My ship is undergoing some repairs, and I have to get a transport. The problem is that there aren't any transports going to Corellia for an other couple of days."

"I can take you to the Etti system, they'll probably have a transport to Corellia before you could get one from here."

"Alright, if you don't mind me tagging along."

"No I could use a copilot for a while. What's your name?"

"Xander Hodgins." Xan said for the lack of a better alias.

"Dim-Ilek-Vors. Friends call me Dim, or Vors. Come on, my ships over here."

Xan followed him. He didn't like the idea of getting off Carida with an other Imperial cadet, but at the moment he didn't have much of a choice. He had enough credits to hire a ship, but they were required to list destination, and anything going to the Corbata system would be flagged immediately.

The ship was a freighter of a make and design that Xander hadn't run across. But his time at the academy had been spent working on TIE fighters, Skipray Blastboats, Lambda shuttles and other Imperial hardware, so for the past half a standard year he'd seen nothing more exotic than a SoroSuub XP-38A landspeeder that belonged to an officer.

"Those are nice blasters you got there." Jefay complimented.

"Yeah. My father bought them for me when I got accepted to the academy." Xan answered as they sat down in the cockpit. "Why are you leaving?"

"Not doing very good. I figured that I could take some time and go home for a while. Oh, and I've been doing some extracurricular activities that the Academy might not like if I get caught."

While they had something in common, and that was good, if Dim wasn't to keen on the idea of the Academy finding out something about him then in most cases he wasn't going to tell them about Xan.

Xan tried to get Dim to let him in the extracurricular activities, but Jefay was in no mood to tell an other cadet that he'd just met about them. The trip to the Etti system wasn't to long as trips went. Dim, or Vors as Xan had taken to calling him had brought the ship down on Etti IV. On the way to the spaceport Dim pointed out some of the local sights, the Free-Flight Dance Dome, the Saline Sea and the Capitol building. The local Etti engineering combined arches and spires, slender buildings and all of them looked very expensive.

The spaceport itself was more of the same. Vors and Xan exchanged handshakes and good wishes before Xan went off to find a public refresher station. Xan tore the Imperial patches from his jumpsuit, and then put that on. One of the first things Xan had noticed was that the local humans were mostly tall and skinny, looking for all the world like a combination of five or six force pikes. There had been a time when Xan had looked like that, but the heavier than standard gravity on Carida, and the instructors forcing the cadets to lift all but the heaviest of loads by hand, had combined to make Xan a very muscular young man. He would stick out like a sore thumb.

Xan had picked up a fake beard and colored droptacs to hopefully conceal his identity. A couple of tugs on the beard to adjust it and Xan headed back out into the spaceport. The avenues were lined with shops and boutiques of almost every kind. He passed a few pet shops that stocked some very vicious looking animals, but the opulence of the society told Xan that almost anything would be out of his price range. Eventually he did find a booth and bought a ticket on the next transport to Katal. Being in the Corporate Sector Xan knew that he was relatively safe from the Empire.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"What word from Carida?"

"He's escaped," the blue skinned man said in calm and controlled voice.

"Escaped? Vice Admiral?"

"Our agents ship crashed on approach to Carida, he never met with your son."

"So where did he go?" The Captain demanded

"Patience Captain. In all likely hood he will return to Katal." The Captain reached for his control board to order a platoon of commandos to Katal. "No, Captain. His ship is still on Carida, he will return for it, I have no doubt of that."

"We'll have men waiting won't we?"

"Of course Captain Parck, he will join us."

"Yes, sir."

Xander made it to Katal without further incident. He stood there in the middle of the spaceport in his Imperial uniform again, blaster pistols on hip. Katal was one of the numerous planets in the outer rim that was a haven for smugglers bounty hunters and all other forms of illegal activity. It was however still independent, not falling under the jurisdiction of Hutt space, and the Empire had left them alone since Dom Artell had protested the Emperors dissolving the Imperial Senate. Occasionally the Empire would send a platoon or so of Stormtroopers and the like to show that Katal did still fall under Imperial law.

The spaceport was just as it had been when Xan had left for Carida six standard months ago, crowded, dirty and shady. Aliens and humans were all over the place, all of them with some form of weapon clearly visible, and who knew how many other weapons, or forms of martial arts they could use against you. Yes they were an unfriendly lot, the whole planet, and the other habitable planets in the Corbata system. He knew he was safe though, he'd grown up on the planet, fought his way through the alleys, boxed Trandoshans in adolescence, he was tough, and that combined with spending a lot of time aboard his fathers Star Destroyer watching the troops, pilots and techs had made him a very formidable person. Not to mention the fact that to attack an Imperial, even a cadet, would bring the Empire down on them.

Xan took out his commlink and thumbed it on. "Hey Rydell?"

"Xan?" Rydell's surprised voice came through the speaker. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the spaceport. Do you think you could come and pick me up, I've run into some trouble."

"Of course Xan, the usual spot."

"Where else? I'm in uniform, so I'll be easy to spot."

"Alright. See you soon."

The usual place for Xan and Rydell was one of the better tapcafes in the area. The Corbata system was a place of polar opposites. There were the very rich law abiding peoples who were there because the system government had very low taxes, and allowed the wealthy to take advantage. On the opposite end of the Galactic spectrum was the majority, the lowlifes, smugglers, and bounty hunters. They came to the system for the same reason the wealthy patrons did, there were almost no laws in the system to actually act against the criminals, the problem was that they couldn't amend the laws to go after them because their were to many crime lords and to few security Force volunteers.

A long time ago the well off residents of Katal had taken to employing there own security forces and body guards, thus making the Dragon Pearl one of the safest places to be in the whole of the Corbata system. Rydell and Xan had spent many hours in the tapcafe when they were younger. Rydell was the son of Dom Artell, a one-time senator for the Corbata system. Rydell had grown up attending the social elite parties, as Xan had because of his father. The pair had met in one of the best privately funded schools in the system at a young age. It looked as if their world was beginning to fall apart.

Xan entered the tapcafe and went straight for the bar, where he would be in plain view as soon as Rydell walked through the ornate wood doors. He ordered Wookie rum, which came at a lower price on Katal because it wasn't as tightly controlled by the Empire and its overwhelming anti-alien prosecution. After the first swig Xan looked around the room, giving each patron a threat assessment. Almost all of them were the wealthy elite, who posed absolutely no threat. However their bodyguards were scattered throughout the area, including a couple that were trying to be clandestine. Classes at the Academy had taught Xan how to identify them. But what did it matter, none of them were going to pay any attention to a lone Imperial cadet.

Xan was halfway through his second glass of rum when Rydell showed up. He plopped down beside Xan and ordered two glasses of Artell reserve, the finest of Katalian wines. The winery being owned by Dom Artell himself, and had since been passed onto Rydell's uncles. Rydell wanted nothing to do with the current family business.

Rydell himself was an oddity in the Artell family. He was the oldest of three children. Tall and well built with sandy colored hair and blue eyes he dressed and acted more like the smugglers that inhabited Katal, including the presence of blaster pistol on his hip, and a concealed vibroblade or two. He idolized his grandfather, who had been one of the most productive and vicious of bounty hunters in his day. It could have been the Empires assassination of his father that had caused the swing towards crime, but he had always shown some of the tendencies. From a young age Rydell's father had been grooming him to be a senator, and perhaps that was an other reason why he rejected it. He slid one of the wine glasses over to Xan.

"Welcome home." He said raising his glass in a toast. "So why are you back so soon?"

"Hey, let's get out of here. I'll tell you later."

"Right, let's go." Rydell drank the glass deep red wine in one gulp, and Xan knew Dom was flipping over in his grave. Xan did the same and followed Rydell out of the bar.

Outside Rydell's land speeder was waiting it was one of the newest SoroSuub speeders. And by no means was it the same as it had come from the SoroSuub dealer. Rydell had seen fit to modify it with all the normal things, upgraded engines, repulsorlifts, maneuvering jets, and of course, some of the illegal upgrades, of which Xan had no idea how many there were. He always wondered if he was sitting atop an ejection seat, but once Rydell got the ship moving, all thought of being thrown from the vehicle by an ejection seat disappeared.

Xan was pinned back in his seat as Rydell hit the accelerators hard. Rydell had never seen fit to upgrade the acceleration compensators. Before he knew it they were doing better than 150 kilometers per hour, which was well below the limits off the vehicle, but he was doing it through traffic! Dodging other speeders, swoops, and pedestrians. Rydell slid the rear end of the speeder out across the wide center of an intersection, coming within millimeters of picking off a Wookie trying to cross the streets.

"So you going to talk yet you nerf herder?"

Xan looked blankly back at Rydell. "No." He said flatly.

Rydell turned back to the road and pinned the accelerators again, and the ship shot off. Just to see how much his friend was pushing the speeder Xan attempted to raise his hand, and found it impossible, excessive gee forces holding it into place. Rydell crossed the line dividing the street into on coming traffic, straight at a fully loaded speeder truck! Most anyone else would have cracked at that point, but not Xan, he knew Rydell wouldn't kill them by ramming the speeder truck, he also knew that Rydell was determined to get the information out of him. Xan gripped one of the handholds, turning his knuckles white. Closer, and closer, the gap between the two speeders continuing to narrow. At the last possible moment Rydell slammed the controls to his right, and narrowly avoided a collision with the speeder truck.

"Alright. You win Xan, we'll go home."

"Your home."

"Yeah."

Rydell was still living with his widowed mother, in of course one of the largest dwellings on Katal. It was a large ranch, almost 200 acres, most of which was dedicated to raising Nerf. Some being slaughtered, other going to making cloths. On Katal if you were rich, and didn't have an Artell nerf leather jacket, you weren't on anybodies list. The truth was though, that they were rarely worn.

Of course there was a large hangar where the various vehicles used by the family and the ranch hands were stored. One of the bays was taken up by Xan's current project. He was building a custom starship, a mixture of Corellian Engineering Corporation engines and upgraded performance parts, and a Kuat Drive Yards Lambda Class shuttle. At the moment he didn't have the wings that he was looking for.

Once Rydell brought the speeder into the hangar Xan spotted something new. It looked like a Skipray blastboat, except for the fact that it was cut down the middle and separated.

"What's that over there?" Xan asked pointing at the severed ship.

"Nope, you've got to tell me why you're home already."

"You mean you haven't heard? My father's been exiled. . ." Xan continued on to relay the story as he began to work on mounting the Navcomputer into the hull of his ship.

"So what are you going to do?" Rydell questioned.

"I don't know. Maybe I can find work around here as a Tech, that was why I was going to the Academy in the first place, right?"

"You could do that. Or you could come with me." Xan waited for his friend to continue, but Rydell said nothing, and smirk crossed his face. A smirk that Xan recognized as one that always meant Rydell was up to no good.

"And what would we be doing?" Xan finally asked.

"Well, I've started running supplies for Black Sun. That's how I got the money for the Blastboat over there."

"No." Xan said emphatically.

"And what did you have in mind. You have no credentials from anywhere that say you can work on starships, and that's going to make it hard for you to find work."

"So I'll go back to the Academy next year with you, and I'll get those credentials." Xan interrupted.

"Uh, huh Xan. And do you think you could set foot anywhere near the Academy without a group a stormies coming down on you?"

"Well from now on I'm no longer Xander Parck. I'm Xander Hodgins."

"Oh, that's going to work." Rydell responded sarcastically.

"It's worth a shot I'll transmit my application, with a few tweaks of course, and if I get accepted I go with you. If they turn me down, well then I guess I'd better find an other alias."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

"Hand me that hydro spanner, would ya?"

"Yeah, of course." Rydell handed over the tool. "So what are you going to do about the _Comet_?"

"I don't know, I guess I'll just wait till I'm finished with this."

"Right, Xan. You know that it's going to take you forever to get this thing ready to fly. You still don't even have those wings you're looking for yet. Oh and don't forget those thrusters, and the maneuvering jets, the quad guns, laser cannons and concussion missiles. What about all the furnishings that you need. A galley. . ."

"Alright, I get the point. I guess I just have to buy something till this things mobile."

"Or. . ."

"Or what?" Xan asked, and that smirk appeared on Rydell's face again.

"We could go and get the _Comet_." Rydell said with a little maniacal laugh.

"Us and what army?" Xan asked, not expecting Rydell to have a plausible answer.

"I could fly my ship and drop you into the area. We could use some codes that I can get through Black Sun and break the ship out."

"And you'll be flying cover while I get the ship ready. Did you happen to forget the TIEs?"

"We can do it." Rydell said with an unwarented amount of confidence.

"In a while, I want to get some credits first."

"Oh, and buy the way, you're staying here. The Imps'll have you place bugged and staked out."

"No objections hear." Xan said.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Haara looked at the star chart on her computer display. A little green orb flashed on the screen; Katal. In the Corbata system. Inside the Corbata cluster, there was an other system nearby that was of no importance to her. She knew where the Corbata system was, knew how to get there, and how long it would take. She loaded the coordinates onto a data card and headed for her ship.

It had been a couple of weeks since she'd met Xan at the tapcafe, and she had said she would find him on Katal. At first she'd started to look out of curiosity, and as she continued to look it became more and more apparent to her that she was going to try and find him. For some reason she also knew that she was going to have to find him, because he wasn't going to go out of his way to find her.

At first it had been impossible to find a chart that had the Corbata system on it. She had had to go to the Academy Library to find a chart that had the system. On top of that it had taken a couple of hours to actually scan and find the small system. She would get there, and she would find Xan. He needed help, and she was the person that was going to help him.

She walked up the landing ramp to her ship, a newer Corellian personal yacht. One of the three R2 units trundled passed. Her father knew that Haara wasn't as mechanically inclined as he would have liked, so he saw fit to solve that problem with the astromech droids that could hopefully necessitate any problems that her ship might have.

The sublights thrummed behind her, warming up for the flight to Katal. She slipped the datacard with the coordinates into the Navigation slot in the console. Inside her there was a welling of some foreign feeling, a rebellious feeling. But it was right, she knew it. Her body trembled slightly when she gave power to the repulsorlifts; there was no going back now. If she left the flight pattern the spaceport controllers would get her into trouble, probably get her permit taken a way. It wasn't a long time before she had cleared Carida's atmosphere, and the computer was calculating the jump. At the chime from computer she pushed the hyperdrive levers foreword, and she was away.

On Katal, Xan had just woken up. It hadn't been as hard as Rydell had said it would be for Xan to find work as a Tech. But the best paying place still only paid him bantha dung for what he was capable of doing. The two weeks he'd been working at Standard Speeder and Starship repair had been miserable. The shop boss was assigning Xan all the jobs that a kid on the street could have done once he was told how too. Stupid things, like mounting furniture, replacing thrusters on speeders, and fans on turbofan engines. All things Xan had known how to do when he was 10 standard years old.

The whole situation aggravated Xan to no end. To be assigned to doing menial work, for low pay, and almost no benefits, when other "more experienced" techs were making mistakes that were time consuming and cost the company money. And then when he remembered that in the hangar at the Artell Ranch was a half completed project, his custom starship. Xan was often forced to work outside the shop in bad conditions; just yesterday he'd been forced to replace repulsor coils on an XP-34 in the rain.

Xan walked into the hangar to get the swoop bike that he'd been borrowing to get to work. Rydell was already working on his ship. He'd taken to calling it the _No Remorse _even though he was a long way from having it complete. The pit droids were already running around bringing their master the tools and equipment that he needed. A crane had been moved into place and the nose of the ship was in the air, just about to be joined with the new extension that Rydell had inserted into the middle of the ships hull.

Rydell had made some other modifications to the heavily armed ship. The purpose for the added five-meter section in the middle was to make the ship livable on long voyages, although the ship had yet to be furnished. Rydell had also managed, or had someone hardwire an astromech into the computer. While all this was going on the engines had been upgraded, along with the maneuvering jets. Rydell was pleased to be able to leave the weapons and shields alone. Xan took an other look at the ugly taking shape in the bay next to his and mounted the speeder.

"You going to be around to help me stick this thing together latter?" Rydell yelled from the gap in the hull.

"Yeah, sure." Xan said as he fired the swoop bikes engines.

"Don't hurt yourself at work today." Rydell said with mock concern. "I need you to help me get this together." Xan chuckled and headed off to work.

Standard Speeder and Starship repair (SSS) was in one of the worst parts of Kalin, the system capital. Xan had left his blasters at the Ranch in favor of a BlasTech DL-44, which was less distinguishing than the pair his father had given him. It would have been suicide for him to go around in those areas of the city without any type of protection.

Since he'd arrived home Xan had noticed an increase in the Imperial population. There were more and more patrols and there was always an unusual amount near Xan's old house, and the places where Xan and Rydell liked to relax and have a few drinks. Rydell was being as accommodating as he could be. When your best friend is suddenly a wanted Imperial Exile it tends to throw a hydrospanner into the works, but Rydell almost never objected to staying in and drinking, or leaving a tap café when an Imperial patrol got to close. The alcohol had the same affect no matter where they chose to drink it.

Triple S wasn't too much of a trip from the Artell Ranch, although it was long enough for Xan to reflect on what had happened to him, and how truly lucky he was to have a friend like Rydell. A friend like Rydell who would do anything to hide him, even though it perhaps even more dangerous for the Artell's to be caught hiding Xan more than it was for Xan to actually turn himself in. There were times when he'd thought about doing just that. Thought about turning himself in to one of the numerous patrols, turn himself in so that he wouldn't have to put Rydell and the Artell family through any trouble. Xan knew what the Imps would do to them if they found that the Artell's were hiding him. Xan couldn't do that to Rydell, although Xan knew that they would have just as much trouble getting a hold of Rydell as they had with Xan. The problem was Rydell's mother and his younger siblings wouldn't be able to.

Xan did his best to brush those thoughts from his mind. He was going to have enough to think about at work, which he was rapidly approaching. There was no activity outside yet, which wasn't a good sign, they should have been out doing things already. After parking the speeder bike Xan entered the shop building to punch in, and his boss was standing on the other side of the door.

"Good morning." Xan said.

"And what's so good about it?" His boss roared. Boss Kinkla was tall and slender man, who in all honesty didn't look as if he could muster enough power to yell the way he could at Xan. "Your late you lazy piece of Bantha droppings! Now get to work before you find yourself in need of a new job."

"Right." Xan said, betraying none of the malice he felt towards his boss. The DL-44 wasn't too much of a reach, and Xan wouldn't even need to shoot the man, just jam his fingers into the mans throat, smash his skull, kick him in the knee to break it and then uppercut him when he doubled over in pain.

NO!

Xan's combat training at the academy had given him all the tools to kill the man, and almost anybody five times before they hit the ground. But if Xan killed Kinkla it would shatter the carefully constructed identity that he and Rydell had worked to create. It wouldn't be possible to create another one quick enough, or cheap enough.

"Get outside and start working on that Corellian 1300. It needs a new set of alluvial dampers. Hurry up before my foot meets your backside!"

"Of course." Xan said. "Just let me grab my tools." As fast as he could Xan grabbed a bunch of his tools and hopped he wouldn't have to go back and get more. His instincts told him to confront Boss Kinkla, his heritage almost demanded it. Xan came from a long line of Corulag Navy officers. From his great grandfather to his father all had served as Captain of Capitol ships, and Xan had taken steps to put an end to that, but he still knew it was a disgrace for someone like him to accept what was being done to him.

An alluvial damper replacement was an other of the simple jobs that they were putting Xan to work doing. At least he would be inside the ship, and away from the Boss. It also meant that Xan got to take the ship for a test flight. The last time though, Boss Kinkla had taken that for himself.

Xan put his tools down on the decking and instantly realized that he forgot something that he needed. Not a moment passed before he heard footsteps coming up the ramp behind him. Xan turned and looked. It was Marnist Kinkla, the boss's daughter. She flashed her beautiful smile at Xan and held up the tool that Xan had forgotten.

"Can't fix alluvial dampers without one of these." She said and tossed the tool to Xan.

"Thanks." He said. "You might want to go back inside, you're going to get into trouble if your father catches you talking to me. Either that or I'll get fired." Xan said.

"He won't fire you. I won't let him." She said, and somehow Xan knew that she meant it. "Why are you working here?"

"I need money." Xan said looking back at the young women, _girl. _That's right, she was still only a girl. Marnist was a very attractive girl, but still only 15 standard years old, as opposed to Xan's 19. Marnist was short, maybe a meter and half, with sand colored hair, ice blue eyes, a beautiful smile and an excellent figure, and she knew it, which made her all the more dangerous.

"You're to good to be working here for what my fathers paying you. I mean I don't want to see you go, but you could do so much better."

"And how would you know?" Xan asked, seeing the flirting compliment for what it was. Xan was a little worried about it. On one hand if he didn't submit to Marnist's wooing she could get angry and loose his job, if he did and they became a couple he could loose his job by angering her father. But nothing was going to happen, Xan was in trouble, and he didn't want to risk anybody else. She wasn't without her endearing characteristics, she was smart and attractive, and she knew how to work on starships. But she was still four years younger than him. _Four _years.

"Look at your boots. You must have enough money to get boots that can stay clean." Marnist said looking down at the toes of Xan's blackened footwear. They had started off tan Nerf leather, now the toes had gone star field black, and the rest of the boots were also starting to discolor.

"I've got more important things to spend money on." _Like my new identity. _ Xan thought.

"Fine then. I'm buying you new boots." She said with a bit of fire in her voice.

"No you won't. How about you come with me after work tonight, Rydell and me need an extra hand or two." Xan asked accomplishing two goals in one; changing the subject, and appeasing her for a while. "Or in your case four." Xan chided

"Hey, just because I'm smaller than you doesn't mean that my hands can't do just as much as yours. And don't change the subject."

"Your hands may be able to do as much as mine, but your muscles can't." Xan joked again.

"Alright Xan, lay off." Marnist said and laughed. There was an other one of those things about her, a great laugh.

"You'd better get out of here before we both get into trouble with your father." Xan said brandishing a fusioncutter at her.

"Yeah, alright, but if you leave without me Xan."

"I wont." He said, returning to the access way and back to work.

Haara put her ship down in the docking bay the controllers had assigned her, a decidedly shady and crumbling piece of architecture. It was hard to tell from the cockpit of the ship, but it didn't look like a very friendly place. The information she'd read on the planet had said that it wasn't one of the friendliest places in the Galaxy, and it looked like it. There was only the muted sound of the landing skids hitting the ground a few moments latter, and then the winding down of the repulsorlifts. She secured the ship and headed out into the city.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: It should be pretty obvious that I do not own the Star Wars galaxy nor anything in it, this is purely for fun and love of writing, and should not be considered canon.

Xan was riding back to the Artell ranch with Marnist on the back of the swoop, holding him around the waist, she seemed to be enjoying the ride, snuggling against Xan's back. He kept it under control even though he wanted to let loose on the swoop, it always helped him to get aggression, and anger out by going out and driving something like a stung mynock. But Marnist was with him, and he couldn't risk his boss's daughter like that.

Xan was spinning the swoop around a turn when he caught sight of a group of local thugs, apparently causing problems for one young women, alone, Xan instantly noticed she was unarmed. He stopped the swoop, and dismounted hurriedly pulling out his blaster and handing it to Marnist.

"Do you know how to use one of these?" Xan asked, holding forward the DL-44.

"Of course." She said taking up the weapon and checking the power level.

"Don't shoot unless I'm in trouble, got it?"

"Of course Xan." She said again.

Xan sprinted from beside the swoop towards the group. There were three of them, two humans and a Trandoshan. There was no way he should have been able to get so close with heavy thudding boots, but he was within range and leapt, planting his foot in the back of the Trandoshan. The reptilian alien was sprawled out on the ground unconscious before his friends had any idea what had happened.

From the ground Xan kicked one of the others in the side of the knee, popping the joint, and crumpling the thug to the ground. The third had plenty of time to prepare for Xan's attack, and countered when Xan was trying to position himself for the final assault. The last man tackled Xan, skidding across the pavement; he landed a few punches before Xan could retaliate with a punch across the jaw. That was all Xan, with his heavy grav honed muscles, needed. He rushed the attacker and landed a punch in his stomach with all of Xan's weight behind it. A quick jab to the solar plexus finished him.

"Come on let's go." Xan said extending a hand to women now cowering on the street. She had dark brown hair with blonde highlights. She lifted her face and looked at Xan, it was the girl from the tapcafe on Carida. "Are you alright?" She didn't respond, only nodded an affirmative. "Then let's go." She took Xan's hand and the two rushed to Xan's swoop and headed for the Artell ranch.

Just as Xan and Haara stepped up to the swoop a squad of Stormtroopers rounded the corner. Xan snatched the DL-44 from Marnist's hand and fired a few shots at the Stormtroopers. The white armored soldiers snapped their E-11's up but didn't fire.

"Xander Parck! Halt, we were sent by your fath. . ." The sentence went unfinished due to a blaster bolt from Xan's DL-44. Blue stun bolts rung out from the weapons, and Xan returned fire, and the troopers scattered, taking up cover. Xan put Haara on the swoop and mounted the vehicle in front of her and headed off towards the ranch.

Xan kept his eyes peeled for Imperial troops on speeder bikes, but he couldn't allow to much of his concentration to be taken from piloting the swoop through the alleys that he was using to get back to the ranch. As soon as the suburban terrain turned into plains that would lead Xan back to the ranch, he hit the thrusters and shot off over the open land. Haara was gripping Xan tightly around the waist the same way Marnist had only a few minutes before, her fear was almost tangible, and Xan felt bad, because he knew that flying the swoop that fast was part of the problem.

Xan spotted the ranch off in the distance and thumbed the comm Switch on the swoops control board.

"Rydell open the hangar." Xan bit out quickly.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Rydell asked.

"I'll tell you when I get there, shouldn't be too much longer." Xan said as the swoop shot over one of the vineyards.

The hangar doors gaped as Xan approached on the swoop, amazed that he had managed to keep both of the women on the swoop. Rydell was waiting by the control panel for the doors and had them closing as Xan entered.

"What's going on?" Rydell asked, as he ran over to the swoop.

"It can wait, just let me get her to a room, and checked out." Xan said as he picked Haara up off the back of the swoop. She wrapped her arms around Xan's neck and began to weep softly as he carried her into the mansion, and out of instinct to his own room.

"You aren't hurt, are you?" Xan asked as he put her down in his bed.

"No." She answered between sobs.

"I'll just let you relax hear for awhile, alright." Xan turned for the door but she grabbed his hand before he could take a step, she held fast and wouldn't let go till Xan turned around.

"Thank you, I told you I'd find you." She said, the tears beginning to disappear from her face.

"I'll be back in a little while to check on you." Xan said.

Rydell and Marnist were waiting when Xan got back to the hangar.

"What was that about?" Rydell asked when he saw Xan enter the hangar.

"Ran into some old friends." Xan said flatly, to full of adrenalin to give a real answer.

"You mean some Imps?" Rydell asked.

"Yeah, exactly." Marnist put in. "And they didn't even shoot to kill after Xan picked one of them off."

"You were in the way."

"And since when do Stormies care about collateral damage?" Rydell asked.

"Who cares? Let's get your sorry excuse for a ship together." Xan said.

"Yeah, oh, and by the way, we got into the Academy."

With the three of them working together it took a little less than a standard hour to get the to peaces into place, and setup for attaching. It wasn't much longer before the setup was ready for all the internal wiring that had to be done, which Rydell started the next morning.

The three were finished by dinnertime, and afterwards Xan took Marnist back to her father's house, both of them keeping an eye out for Stormtroopers. They were safe the whole way. Almost all the lights were off when Xan finally got back to the ranch. Xan helped himself to glass of wine before turning to his room. It was out of tiredness and just plane forgetfulness that Xan opened the door to his room. The dark lump on his bed immediately reminded him that his bed was already occupied. Xan turned around quickly; he plopped down on the couch right outside the door and fell to sleep.

•••

"Captain. Have you read the report from the squad we've sent to Katal?" The Grand Admiral asked. He could see that Captain Parck had read the report already, most likely more than once in the hour since the _Admonitor_ had received it.

"Yes, sir. I find it a little difficult to believe that a squad of highly trained Stormtroopers failed to capture, or even persuade my son." The Captain responded.

"Yes, I agree Captain. But it seems that your son's first reaction to anything remotely Imperial in nature is to run. The Lieutenant reported that Xander fired before the Captain could even finish his sentence. It's obvious that since our agent didn't make contact before the news went out of our exile that your son believes that if he's captured than he will be sent out here with us, or, executed. I've been informed that Rydell and your son have been accepted to the Academy again." The Grand Admiral stopped, leaving Captain Parck to finish the sentence.

"And once they've completed their training we'll have them transferred out here to us."

"Very good Captain. Although we can do nothing as obvious as having their orders issued to join us out here, we'll have to go to them. A question?" Thrawn asked as if reading the Captain expression.

"Yes, sir. What are they being trained in?"

"Ah, of course. Xan and Rydell have both been assigned to a BlastBoat squadron. He will have plenty of opportunities to join Unity fleet command."

•••

Xan woke up the next morning to someone gently nudging him. He reflexively slapped the hand away. The pushing got more insistent, and Xan slapped it away again.

"I can't help you if you wont wake up." A vaguely familiar female voice said. "You could have kicked me out of your bed last night."

"Huh," Xan uttered, blinking sleep from his eyes. "What?"

"Do you always forget the name of people you save?" She asked sarcastically.

"Oh, no. Haara, it's just to early, and what in space do you mean about helping me?"

"What do I mean about helping you? Do you happen to remember when we first met? You were so disturbed when I first saw you that I had to help, so what's the matter with you?"

"Ha, a lot of stuff."

"That doesn't make it easy for me to help you."

"You don't want to help me, it will only get you in trouble. Probably dead." Xan warned matter of factly. "Don't you remember those troops that jumped us right after I got those thugs off of you? There's more out their waiting for me to mess up."

"So why are they after you?" She asked.

Xan was as unprepared for this as he had ever been for anything in his life. Never before had he met someone who was so out going and caring that he'd only just met. There was part of him that wanted to tell her, to have someone beside Rydell that he could tell everything to, someone that was as unjudgeing as the women that was sitting next to him. His other side won out though. The side that said he couldn't involve someone else in his problem, to tell her what was really wrong would bring the Empire down on her also, and she was a good hearted innocent person who was only trying to help. Xan knew that eventually she was going to get caught in the crossfire.

"So what is it? I can see that your thinking, I can see how upset you are. You nerf herder, you haven't even told me who you really are. Who are you?"

"I'm not upset. And as far as you're concerned I'm Xander Hodgins."

She made a face at Xan, "What, you don't like it? Well I'm not changing my first name, and an other last name would be to expensive."

"You're joking aren't you?" She paused as she examined his face, searching his eyes, she closed her eyes, not quit knowing why, but she felt him. Not physically but mentally, some kind of connection, but she suddenly knew that he wasn't joking, and that it was a matter of life or death. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." She made an other face at him.

"It's really alright, you didn't know. But I really think it would be best if you didn't get involved, you're to nice a person to get involved with someone like me, it would be to dangerous and I can't let you do that."

"I want to though. You need me."

"Ha," Xan scoffed, "I don't need anyone."

"You obviously need someone, this isn't your house." She pointed out.

"Alright, so you got me there, but I've been building that ship that's in the hangar."

"And your other ship is still on Carida."

"So when did you decide to turn against me. You said you wanted to help."

"Oh, don't worry Xan I do. It's just that I have to point out that you need me to help." Haara said again.

"Ah, and exactly how do you propose to help me?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to be back on Carida for an other two weeks. When I go back you'll come with me and you'll find a way to get your ship out. You probably want to bring your friends along to help you get the thing out. You and Rydell and your girlfriend can plan all the fine points." Haara said in a playful tone.

"She's not my girlfriend." Xan said flatly. "She wants to be."

"You don't like her?"

"She's to young and the boss's daughter, and I don't want to get anyone involved in my problem."

"Even me?" Haara made a pouty face like a Katal flame fox pup.

"Sorry, it's to dangerous, and I don't want to see you get hurt because of me."

"I bet you're worth the risk Xan."

•••

The Captain sat at his desk in his quarters looking over the holos of his son. Xan had been off at the Academy for six months before he and Thrawn had been 'exiled.' Captain Parck had wanted his son to join him, it was lonely out here in unexplored space with only the Grand Admiral and the men under his command, he wanted some semblage of a regular life, even though he knew going into this that it would be difficult.

Xan had been happy, that's what the Captain tried to remember, now though, he looked distraught. Granted, the holos taken by the Stormtroopers helmet cams were not the best but it was still his son. Impressive too, his son looked just like stills from all of the popular holomovies, except he was not wearing an Imperial uniform, or fighting the Rebels. If he didn't get Xan soon, he would loose his son forever. He filed the holos away on a data card, and stood up, it wasn't wise to keep the Grand Admiral waiting.

He walked briskly along the halls from his quarters to the Admiral's office. He passed small clutches of Chiss and humans in the halls. The door to Thrawn's chamber opened, and the Captain tensed, looking past the Royal Guardsmen standing on either side. The room was lit, and he could only imagine whose art the Grand Admiral had on display today. To his surprise there was no art floating in the air, no painting, or portraits on the wall, just the Grand Admiral.

"Please, take a seat, Captain." Thrawn said in his cool modulated tone.

"Thank you, sir." The Captain replied. "Why have you asked me here?"

"I know it is of personal of importance to you that you son join us. As he had proven over our last few attempts to speak with him he believes that this is a sentence for insubordination. As a result he fears what will happen to him if gets caught by us. What we need to do Captain is get him to us without him knowing what the end result will be."

"And I suppose you've already devised a plan? Will it work?" The Captain, asked, although he knew from experience that it would work, the Grand Admiral's plans almost always worked. Not that Xan was, unintelligent; it was that the Grand Admiral was so smart.

"I do. As you know your son has been accepted to the Academy at Carida again, along with his friend Rydell. What I've planned to do is have them assigned to a new group that is being formed. They will be trained as commandos, and once they've finished their training they'll be assigned to Unity Fleet. Of course your son will be the group sniper, he was very impressive last I saw."

"What is the possibility that they might get wise to this plan?" Parck asked.

"They, Captain?" Thrawn paused, allowing Captain Parck the moment to think about his statement. "They will be separated Captain. With the Artell's history, to keep you son near him would jeopardize his allegiance to the Empire."

"Do you think that Rydell is a rebel?" Captain Parck asked. The last he remembered Rydell had been a good member of the upper society of Katal.

"Not, quite, but you can't ignore the fact that his father was involved in the very early stages of the Rebellion. But no I don't believe that he is a Rebel, but he has taken up with Black Sun. It could be a security risk to keep him and your son close."

"Could I request, sir, that Rydell and Xan not be separated. They work very well together, and Rydell is a very good pilot."

"Agreed Captain, but at the first sign of subversiveness from Rydell, he will be transferred from the unit on my orders."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Dismissed Captain."

•••

Xan knelt down and snapped the access hatch closed, and then sat back on his heals. After replacing the alluvial dampers on the 1300 Xan had flown it and the maneuvering jets needed to be recalibrated. Once that had been done he'd gone back into the ship and turned down the acceleration compensator. Marnist needed to learn how to pilot a ship, and as long as there was a freshly repaired 1300, that belonged to someone else on hand, why shouldn't she learn on that? Just to be on the safe side he had tuned down the acceleration compensator, so that she would feel more of the affects of flight.

"Mar?" Xan asked flipping on his commlink.

"What?"

"Could you bring me my jug of water?"

"What, did you brake your legs trying to recalibrate those maneuvering jets? Get in here and get it yourself." She joked with him, in her usual manner.

"I'm finishing up." Xan said, and took a hydrospanner and began to hit it on the deck of the ship.

"So since when does hammering the inside of the ship do any good for maneuvering jets?" Marnist asked, not over the comm, but from the top of the boarding ramp. "Or did they teach you something at the Academy that they don't want us knowing about?"

Xan half turned around to look, and there she was, holding his jug of water in her hand. "Thanks for bringing my water." He said wiping the sweat from his forehead. She held the jug out to him, and as soon as Xan reached for it she pulled it away. Mar knew that if he wanted to, at any second Xan could get the water from her. But it was fun to tease him, and it would be even more fun if he chased her around the empty ship. She looked at him with a look that Xan knew that she was concocting something. "So, since when does fixing alluvial dampers consist of pounding on the deck of the ship? Or did I miss the memo?"

"Hm, oh, it just something that the guys at the Academy came up with. You see when you hit the deck right here." Xan slammed the deck with the wrench again, a reverberating ring sounding through the innards of the ship. "You loosen the alluvial master cross member, and then it makes it easier to get into the access area." Xan said.

"You made that up." She said and held the water jug out to Xan. He took it this time flipped off the cap and took a long drink. "Well, yeah." Xan shrugged. Mar opened the access hatch that Xan had been working in and leant down into it head first.

"So why did you set the inertial compensator back so far." Her muffled voice came from the hatch.

Instead of answering, Xan quickly shook her ankle, eliciting a scream. Marnist clambered out of the repair crawlspace and hit Xan in the upper arm.

"What were you thinking, I could have fallen on my head!" She yelled at him.

"No, cuz I wasn't going to let go." Xan said. Marnist, having no response for this just made a face and stuck out her tongue.

"Are you going to answer my question or not?"

"Oh, the compensator. Well I figured I had to test fly this thing. So you should come along and we can get you some flying time before we have to get the _Comet _off Carida."

"Why do I need to know how to fly your ship?" Mar asked.

"Because if anything happens so I can't fly someone has to get you and Haara out of there, and I don't think she would respond well under that kind of pressure."

Xan looked at her, she had gone stiff and pale. Young, Xan thought, too young, hadn't experienced death, not even heartbreak, never lost anything. Marnist had been to young to remember when her mother had died, Xan cocked a smile, and said; "Don't worry, I'm not planning on getting hurt." He chuckled. "Nothings going to happen."

Mar offered a weak smile in return, looking back at him with a big-eyed gaze, almost on the verge of crying.

"You sure?"

"Positive, not even a scratch."

Xan pressed the hatch control and headed for the cockpit, holding Mar's hand to lead her along. Mar slumped down into the co-pilot's seat next to Xan, while he prepped the ship to fly.

"Don't worry, even if something does happen to me my astromech will be there to help."

"You have an astromech?" She said, seeming a little amazed.

"An R2 unit." Xan put in.

"How did you get an R2 unit, while you have to work for my dad? That doesn't make any sense."

"You've seen where I live." Xan said trying to deflect the question.

The young lady looked at him, and Xan knew she hadn't bought the ploy, she also hadn't opened her mouth, and so that was a plus. Quickly, so she wouldn't have time to question him again he went over the basic controls, and without hesitation he threw power to the repulsorlifts. When they had cleared the tops of the buildings Xan made for the plains. It would be safer for Marnist to learn how to fly out there than it would be in the city, as long as Xan had his hands by the controls. He tested the ships, back and forth, and through a series of tight turns, feeling the added pressure of G-forces from the toned down inertial compensator. He pushed a barrel roll till Marnist almost passed out; having felt that, and how the ship was behaving Marnist was ready to take the controls.

Ideally Xan would have like to have her fly something other than an YT-1300, something smaller like a T-16. Then he realized it didn't really matter, it was someone else's ship. Better yet though, it was like the _Comet_ in many respects. Xan was confident she would be able to handle it.

Xan put the ship down among the tall golden grass of the plain, and he and Mar swapped places. Once Xan had snapped the restraints he looked over to his companion, she had moved the pilot's seat as forward as it would go, and she was still having a little trouble reaching the control yoke and pedals.

"You worried or something Xan, I've never seen you strapped into a ship."

"I've also never seen you behind the controls of a ship. Just go easy, and make it so I don't need to strap in next time."

"Right." She said, and reached for the repulsor levers. Slowly she moved the levers forward, and got no response from the ship. Almost fed up, she moved the levers forward a little to fast, and the old freighter jumped into the air, protesting with creaks and shudders. The force crushed them down into their seats. Xan's left hand shot over to the repulsor controls and brought the ship down gradually, fighting Mar the whole way. Xan settled the ship down onto the plain and looked over at Mar.

"I said take it easy. Stuff like that will tear this bucket apart. Now let's try that again, slowly."

Mar only nodded in return, and dropped her hand back to the repulsor controls. Slowly, so slowly the repulsor lifts wound up, and with a slight shudder, and a dip to port the freighter was airborne, all be it only a few centimeters off the plain.

"Good," Xan encouraged. "Give it a little more and then give the sublights some power, slowly remember."

She made a face at him, and brought the ship up to 20 meters above the golden grass plains. Applying power to the sublights went much smoother than the repulsor. Every time at the first hint of G force Mar would back off. It wasn't long though before they were doing a casual 150 kilometers and hour.

"Good, now give me a turn to port." Xan could see Marnist's knuckles white around the control yoke, and even though she didn't need to, she leant forward in the pilot seat with a straight back. Again slowly she brought the ship into a lazy turn, reluctant to push the ship, not quiet comfortable with piloting yet.

"Relax Mar, there's nothing out here to hit."

"What about the ground?" She countered.

"Yeah, well, unless the repulsors fail we'll be alright. I think they checked out when I ran the tests." Xan joked. "Don't worry Mar, I'm not going to get hurt, and we're going to be out here a couple of more times before we leave for Carida."

"Here's a question Xan? Well two. One, why don't you just get Haara to fly your ship out?"

"Because I don't think she'll do well under the pressure, you'll be able to respond better. Second question?"

"Why is it so important that me and Haara don't get caught if something happens to you? We are only trying to get your ship back, right?"

Xan didn't answer right away, trying to come up with a plausible alibi. "The Empire doesn't like me." He responded.

Marnist looked over at him as she straightened out the ship again and prepared for an other turn, a skeptical look on her face.

"Will that do?" Xan asked.

"For now Xander Hodgins, but there's going to be a time when I want to know all these dark secrets your hiding."

"You don't want to know." Xan said in a low voice.

With out warning Marnist rolled the ship, forcing Xan down into the co-pilots seat, when she finally righted the ship after a little wobbling Xan looked over at her open mouthed.

"I'm full of surprises." Marnist said with a playful tone.

"Good, let's get back to the shop." Xan said, and he gave Mar the heading for he shop.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: It should be pretty obvious that I do not own the Star Wars galaxy nor anything in it, this is purely for fun and love of writing, and should not be considered canon.

Captain Parck stood on the bridge of the _Admonitor_, staring into the tunnel of hyperspace as the Star Destroyer hurtled towards some distant planet on the edge of the known galaxy. He stood there and ignored the subdued conversations that floated to him from the crew pits. The Captain was thinking about his son, how everything had started to get out of control.

The Captain worried about his son, but at the same time was confident that Xan would be able to fend for himself. The fact that he had reapplied to the Academy was a calm spot in his conscious, being accepted was a plus, and hopefully Xan wouldn't get away again before he could talk to him. For the moment, at least he was at ease knowing that the Imperial Garrison on Katal was keeping a close watch on his son. Especially since they told him that Xan wasn't getting into trouble.

But still, Voss Parck missed his son.

•••

"I bet you can't sneak up on him." Marnist said to Haara.

"What?" The other young women asked.

"I bet you can't sneak up on Xan." Mar spoke a little slower, a subtle jab at Haara's intelligence. "No one can sneak up on Xan. He always turns around, or knows your there. Watch."

Slowly, quietly, Marnist headed across the ferrocreate slab towards Xan. Haara watched curiously. Moving the way she was Mar should have been able to sneak up on Xan, who was pounding away at a bent landing skid support. When Mar was halfway to Xan he paused, and then resumed pounding on the landing strut. Again when Mar was three meters away from Xan stopped and spun around.

"Nice try Mar. You know you can't sneak up on me." He said and brandished a tool at her.

"It was worth a try." Mar offered.

"No it wasn't." Xan smiled and returned to work

"See I told you so." Mar said to Haara smugly. "So do you want to try, or are you going to take my word for it?"

With out a word Haara set off across the same ferrocrete slab. She watched her feet, as if it would help keep them quiet. An other step and her booted foot scraped the pebble-strewn ferrocreate. _Xan can't hear me, Xan can't hear me_; she thought over and over again. Energy seemed to flow into her as she thought those words over and over again. Slowly she walked across to Xan, only an other meter, she could almost touch him, just a little bit further and she tapped his shoulder.

Xan wheeled around on his heels, drawing his DL-44 in the process. Haara could see the surprise on his face; someone had suck on him, then a second flash as he realized who it was. They seemed to hang motionless and silent. Xan's finger dropped away from the firing stud. The clatter of Xan's wrench hitting the ferrocreate broke that, brought everything back to normal speed.

"Don't ever do that again." Xan admonished gruffly. He holstered his blaster and returned to work. Haara white as bleached bantha bones, stood there and whimpered. Her feet secure to the ferrocreate, paralyzed with fear.

Xan's pounding on the support became more belabored; quickly he had bent it past where he'd wanted it to be. But he was mad.

His guard was down, the fact that Haara had been able to sneak up on him that way showed that the Stormtroopers would have no problem. A special commando unit would have without a doubt. The impact of hammering on the durasteel support reverberate along his arms, through his body and chattered his teeth.

Stupid!

Lazy!

Dead!

And only two days until they would be getting the _Comet _of Carida.

•••

"So how is this going to work Grand Admiral Xan?" Rydell mocked.

"Very funny." Xan took a quick scan around the table, the bottle of Artell reserve in the middle, Rydell, Haara and Marnist were at the table. "So tomorrow morning Haara, Marnist and I head for Carida in Haara's ship. Rydell, you and Makazu leave latter tomorrow, and you signal us when you're on approach to Carida. We brake into the hangar where the _Comet_ is being kept. Rydell got us the times when the Stormies will be changing guards, and then we take off as soon as you and Mak pickup on our ID, find us and we head for hyperspace. You up to it buddy?"

"What, a Blastboat, an X-wing and a freighter against squadrons of TIE fighters and probably a Star Destroyer or two. I like our odds."

"Are you serious Xan?" Haara snapped. "We'll get killed."

"Not if we're fast enough." Xan said. "And we'll be heading for space before they even know what's going on. Once we're clear, don't jump directly home, my ship will be bugged. We'll make a stop at Dantooine." Xan turned back to Haara. "You don't need to go if you don't want to."

She looked back at Xan, holding his gaze; "I'm going with you." Haara affirmed.

"Alright then, you two had better get to bed me and Rydell are going to prep the _No Remorse_."

Xan stood and finished his glass of wine before he and Rydell went to the hangar. It was locked up for the night, and glow panels were off except for a few security permlights. Rydell flipped on the switch, and the pair headed straight for the ship.

"Droid, systems check." Rydell said and he and Xan took up position at a pair of monitors. The systems status began to scroll across the screen, all showing up satisfactorily. The astromech helped boost the power and helped with in-flight systems. A necessity for Rydell because he did not want to work with many people other than Xan and Makazu, and it would be to much for one person to handle a Blastboat on his own.

"So," Xan said almost casually, "what's your plan for getting this thing past the controllers on Carida?"

"Oh, simple." Rydell answered not looking up from his monitor. "I've got the codes of an Imperial Blastboat. I'll jump into the system broadcasting as an Imperial. I'll tell the controller that I was on patrol and I disabled Makazu's X-wing. Eventually they'll give me clearance to land and that's when we get you free."

"It sounds like it should work." Xan said. "I think it's about time we turned in."

•••

Xan, Marnist, and Haara sat around a table in a tapcafe, waiting for their shots of Corellian whiskey. Haara chatted away at Xan, serving as an almost distraction from his thoughts of how they were going to pull it off.

"You know what place this reminds me of?" Haara asked Xan.

"Every other run down cantina across the galaxy?" Xan offered almost sourly.

"No, when I met you." She said. The wait droid trundled up and placed the three shots of Corellian whiskey in the middle of the table, and then distributed them. "Did you forget that already Xan? Huh, why aren't you two drinking?"

Xan and Marnist exchanged glances. "On Katal the last person to speak has to be the first to drink." Xan said mater-of –factly.

"Oh,"

"And you were the last to speak." Xan said.

"So hurry up and drink." Marnist bit out.

Haara sipped the whiskey. Xan and Mar exchanged glances again, and downed their shots.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do." Xan said. "You two wait somewhere near the door, just out of sight of the Stormies, I'll wait across the road. When I pick them off you two run up to the door and put this in the ID card reader." Xan slid the datacard across the table to Mar. "As soon as the doors open you two have to get in the hangar and onto the _Comet _. I'll be there as quick as I can."

"Right." Mar answered.

"You ready Haara? You could still just go home without a problem."

"No I'm going with you."

"Can you handle quadguns?" Xan asked.

"I can." Mar answered promptly.

"A what?" Haara asked.

"Never mind." Xan sighed, only her. "Let's go."

Xan dropped a couple of credits on the table and followed Haara and Mar out of the tapcafe, finishing Haara's shot of whiskey on the way. Once out side Xan went in the opposite direction first, and then doubled back and took up position across the street from the hangar.

Xan thumbed on his commlink. "A5, are you there?" The droid twittered in the response. "Good, key in the emergency start up sequence, and get her going as soon as I give you the signal." There was an other affirmative twitter.

•••

A nervous pang shot through Makazu's stomach as his X-wing reverted to realspace near Carida. The fake tether stretched from the nose of his ship to the tail of the _No Remorse. _It wasn't the realization of what they were about to do; it was the Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit over the planet. Makazu keyed for a comm Burst to Rydell.

"Hey do you see that? Are we still going through with this?"

"We haven't been called off, so as far as I'm concerned we're still on. Now keep quiet back there. We don't want the Imps to catch us."

•••

Xan spotted Marnist and Haara just out of sight around the corner of the hangar. They looked inconspicuous, just like any pair of Caridan women chatting on the street. Hopefully they would move when it was time to act. Xan's sweaty palms gripped one of his blasters his father had given him. Before a moment of indecision could force it's way between his ears he pulled the blaster from the holster on his right hip and fired two shots, one striking a Stormtrooper in the face the other hitting his companion in the shoulder, spinning him to the ground. The crowd let out a gasp and receded from Xan.

"A5, get the ship going!" Xan yelled into his commlink.

Without hesitation Mar had sprung from her hiding spot and pumped three shots into the Stormtrooper who had been shot in the shoulder. She squeezed off a couple of shots to cover Xan as he ran for the hangar doors. Haara was already halfway up the boarding ramp when Xan ducked inside the door. Clearly visible in gleaming white armor was a squad of Stormtroopers hustling towards the hangar.

"Get on the ship, I'll cover you." Xan yelled to Mar.

She nodded and ran for the boarding ramp. Xan pulled out his other blaster and began to back pedal towards the ship. The rumble of the engines reverberated in his ears. A quick shot to the door controls brought them slamming shut, isolating them from the Stormtroopers on the other side. Xan spun on his heels and sprinted up the boarding ramp.

"Mar get to the upper quadgun!" Xan yelled as he ran for the cockpit. "A5 is the ship ready?" The droid twittered an acknowledgement.

Xan dropped into the pilot's seat and immediately began flipping switches. Haara dropped into the co-pilot seat behind Xan and strapped in.

"A5, fix the lower quadgun to fire forward, and give me fire control." The droid twittered and went about his business. The status board showed all green as Xan gave power to the repulsors. The _Comet_ rose with satisfying quickness above the rim of the hangar. As soon as he was clear he pumped power to the drives, and angled for space.

"Stay sharp Mar, we could have TIEs any second."

"Got ya'"

"What do the scanner show Haara?" Xan asked.

"It looks like most of the traffic is scattering, I don't see anything coming towards us."

"Good widen the search area."

"What?" Haara asked. "I've never seen anything like this before." She said.

Xan let out a disappointed sigh. "A5, widen the scanner ban. Find a modified Blastboat and an X-wing and tag them as friendlies." The droid twittered.

•••

"Go!" Rydell's voice reverberated in Makazu's helmet. The tether dropped away from the nose of his X-wing. Makazu corkscrewed below Rydell's Blastboat, and goosed the engines, burning space for Carida's surface. Rydell fell in behind him.

"Give me his location." Makazu barked, quickly his R4 unit showed a blue blip as Xan. A minor course correction put Makazu on a vector for Xan.

"Mak, twenty degrees to port, a flight of TIEs." Rydell's voice sounded in his helmet.

"Got 'em, intercept, right?"

"You know it, first pass with proton torpedoes."

Makazu rolled his X-wing to port with Rydell closing in a little on his port S-foil. Mak hit the switch on his control stick, and switched over to proton torpedoes. "Rig them to lock on separate targets." The R4 unit chirped, and then squealed when it had completed the task.

"Fire when I give the signal." Rydell said. "Have you spotted the _Comet_?"

"No, my droids marked it on the scanners, but I can't see it yet."

"We should be able to see them soon, stay sharp."

Makazu gave the area a quick scan, and then fixed on the flight of TIEs again. The torpedo lock tone sounded, but nothing came from Rydell. Makazu waited, waited, they were almost on top of them. . .

"Fire!"

Makazu toggled off two torpedoes, and was forced to fly through twin explosions.

•••

"A5, more power to the forward shields!" Xan snapped, and watched, as the TIEs grew larger in the viewport. Xan squeezed the trigger, red bolts of energy lanced away from the_ Comet_, no hits, but they broke formation. "Stay sharp Mar!"

Xan was answered by a short burst from the upper quadgun. A group of bolts hit the starboard solar panel on one of the fighters, spinning it out of control to smash into the ground below.

"Good shot Mar." Promptly two more of the fighters exploded in bright orange and red balls of flaming gas.

"Who took my third kill?" Rydell's voice burst over the comm Xan smiled a little, but didn't loose his concentration.

"Did you two have any problems?" Xan asked as he flipped the _Comet _on its port side so it could fit between two tall buildings.

"We didn't, but there's a Star Destroyer up there we have to get past."

"Yeah, I know. Form up on me, and we'll make a run out of here."

"Got ya." Rydell answered, and pulled his Blastboat in close to Xan's starboard side. Makazu did the same on Xan's port side. Xan pushed the _Comet's_ sublights for all they were worth, putting some good distance between them and the ground.

"Almost clear now. Just have to get past that Star Destroyer and we're safe." Xan offered to Haara, sitting behind him. "A5, even out the shields."

The bulk of the Imperial class Star Destroyer loomed overhead. Xan was going to push right on underneath it; they wouldn't have any word on what was happening yet.

"Good luck guys. Break off and we'll meet at the rendezvous point." Mak and Rydell peeled off in opposite directions, and in a few moments were off to lightspeed. "Alright, get ready for the jump to lightspeed. A5, how much longer till you've got the coordinates." The answer scrolled across his screen. The _Comet_ was very close to the Star Destroyer. Just as Xan reached for the hyperdrive levers, the ship was rocked violently, as if a rancor had grabbed it. "Shavit, tractor beam." Xan snapped. An other round of shudders went through the _Comet _punctuated by a scream over the comm. Haara moved to go check. "Sit down, I can get us out of this. If you get up and start walking around I'll have two people to take care of. Strap in!"

Xan took a deep breath and wrenched the controls around again, and nothing but an other shudder happened. In Xan's gut he had the worst feeling. He was almost out of ideas, caught in a tractor lock of an Imperial class Star Destroyer. Xan knew what would happen to him that was probably inevitable. What mattered were the other two people in the ship. Xan didn't want to be responsible for two more people being shunted to the Unknown Regions with him. They did nothing but try to help him. He had to do it!

"A5, when I give you the signal reverse fire the acceleration compensator. Are we still on course for the jump to lightspeed." The droid hooted a response. Xan toggled fire control over to his concussion missiles. "Alright. . .Now!" Xan fired a pair of concussion missiles, and there was a corresponding mechanical scream from the engine room as the _Comet _reversed direction. "We're free!" Xan shouted at the top of his lungs and reached for the hyperdrive levers. Xan had never seen anything as comforting as the blue-black kaleidoscope that enfolded the _Comet_.

Without even taking time to savor his minor victory Xan jumped up and headed back along the hall to the dorsal gunwale. He climbed the ladder as fast as he could. A thick gray smoke greeted him half way up, smelling of ozone and burnt electrical wiring.

"Mar!" Xan shouted, but there was no response. She either couldn't speak or was unconscious. He climbed the rest of the way to find Marnist strapped into the chair unconscious. She was facing away from him, hands limp at her side. A heavy electrical conduit swung loosely, blood smeared on the end.

"Haara, hurry! I'm going to need your help, Mar's out cold." Xan yelled.

There was the sound of running footsteps hitting in the durasteal decking. Then from the bottom of the ladder; "What can I do Xan?"

"Open the door to my quarters, and make sure that the bed is cleared."

"Alright."

"Then grab a medpac." Xan said almost as an afterthought.

With one hand holding Mar in the seat Xan undid the restraints. The real problem was hoisting her up and over the back of the seat without falling down the ladder. Xan locked his ankles around the ladder and pulled Mar up and out, with one arm securely around her waist, and one hand on the ladder.

As soon as Xan was down he headed for his quarters with Marnist cradled in his arms. When Xan turned into his room Haara had the bed cleared and the covers pulled back. With a tenderness that would be hard to believe from a man who'd just blasted his way past TIE fighters and an Imperial Star Destroyer, he eased Mar into the bed.

"Medpac, now!" Xan snapped as he checked the girls pulse. Haara without a word put the medpac down on the bed, already open. Xan grabbed the biggest bandage from the pac, and put it where he saw blood matting her golden-brown hair, a bacta patch would come later, after the bleeding had stopped.

"Is she breathing?" Haara asked.

"Yes, she just unconscious. Probably has a concussion."

"Is she going to be alright?"

"If she gets medical attention quickly. I'll have to drop you and her at the next system, and then have Rydell go back and get you two in one of the Artell family yachts." Xan said as he continued to check Mar. Good thing he'd taken those basic first aid courses at the Academy.

"Why?" Haara asked.

_How can't she know? What doesn't she understand?_

"Because there's a tracking bug somewhere on this ship and sooner or later the Imps are going to find us. I can either debug the ship or get Mar medical help, which would you pick?" Xan yelled.

Again the young Caridan women cowered away from Xan, hands drawn in close to her chest, head hung low. She looked as if she was going to cry at any second.

"Just leave me alone right now. I have a lot to think about." Without a word Haara left Xan's quarters. He didn't watch her go, but returned to caring for Marnist.

Haara slumped down into the copilot's seat in the cockpit. She looked out on the blue-blackness of hyperspace, and began to weep. Xan had just lashed out at her for trying to help him. But for some reason he was afraid to let anybody but Rydell help. She had to pick a tough one to care about, but that was the type that all the girls in the holodramas went for, wasn't it?

She knew somewhere in him Xan cared about her, but what besides try to help had she done? During the breakout it was Mar who had the codes to get into the hangar, it was Mar who had been shooting at the Stormtroopers with Xan. Slowly her hand came to rest on the blaster at her hip, it had never even been taken out of its holster during the whole ordeal.

Maybe she and Xan weren't meant to be together, as she thought more about it, it made more sense. They came from different worlds, different upbringings. Xan seemed like he would be able to assimilate into her world easy enough, but she would never fit into his. Never in a million years she would be able to do what Xan and Marnist had done, she had lost him without a chance.

Tears burst forth in a spasm of recognition. Xan could never be hers. She sat there and cried with he face buried in her hands for half a minute before she remembered something her father had always said. _If you're ever in trouble, breathe deep and calm down. _

Closing her eyes, with tears still running down her ruddy cheeks, she began to take deep breaths and all of the sudden Haara knew that they would be together. They were destined to be together. She could almost see it, almost.

Haara blinked the last of the tears from her eyes, and looked out the cockpit. The tunnel of hyperspace was gone! Now she looked out on an empty starscape, no ships, no planets, not even a good-sized hunk of rock. Something cold crawled into her stomach, something had gone wrong.

"Xan!" She shouted. "Come here!"

Even in his quarters the strain in her voice was clearly evident. Xan left Mar unconscious in his bed and bolted for the cockpit.

"What happened?" Xan asked, "What did you touch?"

"Nothing. I came in here to cry and we were in hyperspace. When I looked up again I saw that!" Haara fired back.

"Alright, A5, give me a hyperdrive systems display." Xan dictated as he dropped into the pilot's chair. It would be an other few minutes before Rydell and Makazu would be out of hyperspace. "Shavit." Xan said at he reviewed the hyperdrive displays. The hyperdrive motivator had been destroyed in the maneuver that had gotten them free of the Star Destroyer, and the backup showed the same. "Krif."

"What's wrong?" Haara asked.

"We're dead in space, and for the next four and a half minutes we have no-one to call for help." Xan said in a very resigned tone. "And we've got a homing beacon strapped somewhere on us." A5 gave an almost excited sounding set of hoots. "You know where they put the beacon?" Xan said starting to get excited. "Behind the sensor dish. Good. Find out where we are so I can send the coordinates as soon as we make contact. Once Rydell's on the way I'm going EV to get the tracker off my ship."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The proximity warning went off in the cockpit of the _No Remorse _and Rydell pulled back on the hyperdrive levers. In a second or two he was back in realspace, Makazu's white X-wing was out ahead and off to port.

"Do you think we're safe Rydell?" Makazu's voice came through the speaker.

"Safe enough to wait for Xan." He answered. "He shouldn't be to far behind us."

"What if he got nabbed by that Star Destroyer?"

"Xan wouldn't have gotten caught. We'll give him a couple of minutes."

The two ships held position, Rydell watching his long-range scanners for any movement from the planet or ships in the area. Five standard minutes ticked off of Rydell's chrono. Something had gone wrong.

"Mak, you'd better brake off and head for home. Stick to the route that Xan laid out."

"That's going to take forever. What about you?"

"I'm staying put for an other few minutes to see if he turns up. Go on, like you said it's going to take forever."

"Yeah, right. Good luck."

With a flicker of psuedomotion the white X-wing was gone. In no more than a handful of seconds later the droid began to hoot uncontrollably

"What?" Rydell snapped as he spun the pilot's chair around to face the comm monitor. "You picked up a transmission from Xan? Put it through."

"Rydell can you hear me?" Xan's voice, strained and weary, but still Xan's voice. Rydell glanced at the scanners before he responded.

"Where are you Xan, you don't show up on my scanners, and you know how good they are."

"Um, yeah about that. We're nowhere." Xan said. "We can't be more than a couple of lightyears away from Carida."

"What happened?" Rydell asked, beginning to get worried.

"The Star Destroyer got us in a tractor lock, we got free but I fried the primary and backup hyperdrive motivators. Mar got hurt while we were getting free of the tractor beam. She's unconscious right now. We need a tow home."

"Give me the coordinates and I'll be there as fast as this bucket will take me."

"And Rydell, remind me to order an extra set of hyperdrive motivators for the _Wolf_."

"Alright, you guys just sit tight."

•••

Captain Parck gulped down an other cup of water. Xan had managed to make it away from Carida in the _Whistling Comet_. He had out maneuvered Thrawn again. Now if only he would come willingly the Unknown Regions would belong solely to the Empire.

A huge part of the Captain was proud. His son was finding ways to stay free, to fend for himself. Of course though, Thrawn had pointed out that the Star Destroyer had been crewed with a large number of men right out of the Academy. He had still gotten away.

Even though serving under Thrawn was Parck's chosen privilege, part of him was beginning to hope that Xan would at least continue to elude them until he was through IPEC training.

•••

The primary hyperdrive motivator disintegrated in Xan's hands. _Perfect_. And there was no chance the backup was going to be any better. At least the tracking bug had been easy to find. A5 had marked the location when the Imperials had impounded the ship.

Once the tracker was detached it was easy enough to take care of. Hopefully leaving it active out in dead space would lead the Imps there. Just not until Xan and everybody were on there way home to Katal.

"Xan." Someone croaked from the other room. "Xan where are you?" The same weak voice.

_Mar! She's awake! _ Xan dropped the useless hyperdrive motivator and sprinted through the lounge to his quarters. When he got there he saw Marnist sitting up in bed with both hands clasped around her head.

"Are you alright?" Xan asked.

"No." She whimpered. "My head hurts."

"It should. You got hit by a good-sized electrical conduit, cut you open, probably gave you a concussion too. Other than that, how do you feel?"

"My neck, my arms. . .My whole body hurts."

"Don't worry, Rydell is on his way."

"What, why is 'Rydell on his way?' Where are we?"

"These are my quarters, we're still on the _Comet_ but we're dead in space right now. I had to do something to get us away from that Star Destroyer that blew out the hyperdrive motivators. So right now we're in the middle of empty space waiting for Rydell to give us a tow home."

"Oh, no we're going to die out here." Marnist began to cry with her face buried in the palms of her hands, her whole body seemed to convulse.

"No we're not Mar, there's enough supplies to last us two and a half weeks. And Rydell is on his way right now." Xan said as he sat on the edge of the bed. His reassuring words seemed to have no effect. "Don't cry, Mar, we're going to be alright." Nothing happened, just more crying.

Not knowing what else to do Xan threw his arm around her and slowly pulled her closer, so he wouldn't put her in any more pain. She threw her arms around his waist and squeezed, glad to have something solid to hold on to.

"It's alright Mar. Don't worry we're going to be alright." Xan said in a soothing voice and dimmed the lights knowing it would help her headache. Finally she looked up at him, tears streaming from bloodshot eyes. Xan yanked the covers up and wiped the tears away. "Now don't worry we're going to be alright."

"How did you blow the primary and backup hyperdrives?"

"I'll overload you're concussed little brain if I tried to explain it to you right now." Xan paused. "Are you going to be alright for awhile? I have to go throw the motivator back together so we don't have stuff crashing all over the place. Haara's going to stay nearby, so if you need anything just call her."

"Right."

"Sorry I'm greasy." Xan kissed her on the forehead to reassure her. To young Xan thought.

Rydell found the _Whistling Comet_ just as Xan was securing the nonfunctioning hyperdrive motivator. Within twenty minutes they were in hyperspace on the way home, the tracking bug still floating in the middle of nowhere.

Now they were safe, soon Xan could get back to work on the _Nova Wolf_, and repair the _Comet_.

•••

It had only taken a few days for the repairs to be complete on the _Comet_. The repairs had been easy and straight forward enough, and with Rydell's help Xan finished them after work, even patching those nasty laser cannons burns on the hull.

Marnist had gone into a bacta tank and had to stay a couple of nights at the hospital. Boss Kinkla had been furious, and that was when he believed that his daughter had been injured in a shock ball accident. He would have fried Xan if he knew how Mar had gotten the concussion, and he probably would have had it not been for Mar's idea. Everybody on Katal was looking for an easy way to make a quick credit; Xan could have been a dead man, or worse, in Imperial custody.

Almost as soon as Xan had the _Comet_ ready to fly Rydell had been asking him to haul freight for him. Xan knew that eventually it would lead to smuggling, probably spice, and weapons, they never smuggled anything that could be of use to regular people, just dissidents and glitbitters. With all that was going on in Xan's life he didn't need to add more illegal activity to it.

Rydell was a good friend though, as close to a brother as he could be. What Xan didn't know was that was the only reason that he was trying to get Xan to haul freight for him, but he would not take no for an answer. Rydell had extended the offer because he hated seeing how worn out Xan was when he got home from a dead-end, go nowhere job that was paying him far less than he was worth. All Rydell wanted to do was give Xan a chance to make some good money, their really wouldn't be that much smuggling.

As far as Xan was concerned even taking the job would lead to smuggling, and unwanted attention from the Imps, and knowing that the Empire put resources into stopping smuggler like Star Destroyers was an other good reason not to get involved. Besides, his father spent so much of his career hunting down smugglers it would be an insult. With the Rebellion and all it was becoming even more difficult as the Empire tried to crack down on supplies getting to the Rebels.

In it's obscurity in the Outer Rim Katal and the whole of the Corbata system had become a smuggling hub since the beginning of the Civil War. It wasn't unusual for a freighter to leave Katal with a shipment for the Rebels, return to Katal and then sell the location to the local Imperial garrison. Xan had noticed that this was becoming more difficult as the Rebels tighten up on shipping procedures.

•••

Xan's commlink chirped as he was replacing an engine cowling on luxury airspeeder. There was nothing really wrong with it except for a small dent the size and shape of a ronpor nut.

"Hello?" Xan was expecting to hear Marnist, or Boss Kinkla on the other end.

"Xan, I need you to do me a favor." It was Rydell, with a hint of anxiousness in his voice.

"What?"

"I screwed up and I need an other ship and pilot to make a run for me. Can you do it?"

Xan didn't answer right away, he could tell by the tone of his voice that Rydell would be in trouble if this shipment didn't get out.

"Do I get a co-pilot?" Xan asked reluctantly. After all Rydell had done for him there was no way Xan could really say no.

"Only if you can scare one up yourself buddy. Thanks a lot Xan."

"I'm just going to get the _Comet_, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Oh, and don't worry you'll be well paid." Rydell added. "Thanks Xan, I owe you one."

"No you don't." Xan scoffed and flipped the commlink over Mar's personal frequency.

"What do you want?" Mar's voice still carried its sarcasm even through the static.

"A co-pilot."

"I'll be right out."

"You mean you don't want to know where we're going?"

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. Rydell didn't tell me yet."

"What are we hauling?"

"Don't know."

"Great Xan, you really do need me." Marnist sighed and cut off the transmission. In a few minutes Marnist was at his side as Xan readied the speederbike.

"Come on let's go it sounds like Rydell really needs our help. Don't you have to tell your dad where you're going?" Xan asked as he spun the speeder bike into air.

"Nah, he won't mind."

"Just as long as you're home in one piece. He seemed pretty mad when we got home from Carida."

"Guess I can't get hurt then."

Xan didn't think there could be a more disreputable part of Kalin than where Triple S was located, but surprisingly, the freight complex that Rydell was working out of far and away surpassed Triple S. Down every alley seemed to be empty blackness, the type of blackness that you would walk into and not walk out of again. As casually as possible Xan spun the power selectors on his blasters to their maximums, subconsciously clutching the grip of one when he spotted a wall with numerous blaster scars.

When Xan finally set the _Comet_ down, he and Mar found themselves facing a crumbling ferrocrette structure with bloodstains clearly visible on some parts of the walls, along with hydraulic, and other various fluids involved with interplanetary travel. Almost before they knew what was happening there was a group of beings and droids converging on the _Comet_, all holding crates of some sort.

"Nice of you to finally show up." Rydell said voice resonated sardonically through Xan's commlink. "All those droids and workers are going to load up the _Comet_. Why don't you and your co-pilot come inside, I'll meet you inside." Some of the strain had left his voice, but it was still all too evident to Xan that something was wrong.

"We'll be right there." Xan said into his commlink. With his foot Xan pressed the release for the secret compartment in the console. By his left thigh a panel slid back and Xan reached in and grabbed the DL-44 he'd hidden there. "Here, take this." He said handing it over his back to Marnist. "We'll get you a holster when we get back, just find someplace to keep it for now.

Without hesitation the young women took the blaster and stuck the barrel down the back of her pants. Xan and Mar walked side by side to where they would meet Rydell, both kept hands in reach of blasters at all times. Xan was ready for anything as they walked among the droids and dregs. Anyone of the sentient beings could have seen the wanted holos for Xan. He didn't feel safe anywhere, accept the _Comet_ and the Artell ranch.

Just like he'd said Rydell was waiting inside the door. He smiled at Xan and motioned for the pair to follow him. After weaving between crates that were stacked taller than Xan and Rydell combined they came to the _No Remorse_.

"It's the only secure place to talk." Rydell said, once the hatch was sealed. "Ok, so here's what's going to happen. I need you two to help me move these supplies for the Rebels to Pzob."

"The Rebels!" Xan exclaimed. "We're moving supplies for the Rebels!"

"Listen Xan, it's good money and they need the help. It's not like you'll be trading shots with a squadron of Imperial TIEs. Why do you see them as so evil. If my father hadn't been killed he would be one of them."

"Your father died in a speeder crash, he wasn't killed." Xan shot back.

"Oh, but isn't it convenient that my father, who along with Senator Organa was one of the loudest voices against the abolition of the Senate, just so happens to die in a speeder, and the fire the crash caused burned his body so that nothing else could be found if anyone had bothered to look? No Xan, he didn't die in that crash.

"Is that what you want Xan. Do you really want the Empire, or are you just afraid that daddy's going to crawl out of the Unknown Regions and you'll wind up shooting at him!" Xan's face went red with anger. Mar was smart enough to figure everything out now that Rydell had given her enough of the pieces. But Rydell was right, Xan didn't really approve of the Empire but. . . "Anyway," Rydell said gaining control of himself again. "I've herd you talk about the terrible things that the Empire does that don't make the news because the propaganda sensors won't let it. . ."

"Alright, enough, I'll do it." Xan interrupted. Rydell paused for a moment surprised in Xan's sudden change, but he recovered quickly.

"Good, here are the codes they've sent us. Wait for them to hail you twice before responding." Rydell handed over a datacard.

"Right, we're going together."

"Of course." Rydell said, "We'll leave as soon as the _Comet_ is loaded."

"Alright." Xan said and stood and headed back to the _Comet_, where a crew of humans and aliens were loading the cargo holds with plain unmarked containers. Xan did his best trying to avoid contact with his co-pilot, busying himself with the simple astrogation that would get them from Katal to Pzob. He sent Mar to run a diagnostics check on the sublight and hyperdrive systems so he could hide longer. Xan knew as soon as she was given the chance Mar would be brining up what Rydell had said, and it would have been impossible to cover up what his friend had meant. And Mar wouldn't stop until Xan had told her the truth.

As Xan had expected Mar was quick with the diagnostics check. She came up behind Xan as he sat at the navigation computer. Just as she opened her mouth to ask what Rydell had meant by all that Xan began to speak.

"Go to the cockpit and get the ship ready to fly, I'm going to check the magclamps on the containers." Before Mar had a chance to ask a question Xan was past her on his way to the cargo holds. She let out a sigh, as Xan's green and white R2 trundled by. Whatever Rydell had meant Xan was not ready to talk about it. Just the fact that he had her run a diagnostics on the sublights and the hyperdrive, and now he was checking the magclamps told her that he was avoiding her. She cared about him, wanted to help her as much as she could, and now when he obviously needed her most, he was shutting himself off to the worlds. Sometimes she just didn't understand men.

Xan's commlink chirped as he knelt down to check the first magclamp.

"Yeah." Xan said into the mic slightly irritated.

"Are you ready to go?" Rydell asked.

"Yeah it looks like it." Xan responded glancing around the first cargo hold. "Give me five minutes."

"In the air in five minutes. Follow me out."

Xan went back to the cockpit and sat down in front of Marnist. To Xan's almost delight she said nothing that didn't pertain to flying the ship. In close formation with two other ships the _No Remorse_ and _Whistling Comet_ rose from Katal and headed for the rendezvous at Pzob.

As soon as hyperspace enveloped the _Comet_ Xan knew it wouldn't be long before Marnist would start to ask questions that he didn't want to answer. There were only so many things he could do to avoid her and there were only so many things that he could make her do before she was out of things to do. Even if he decided to lock himself in his quarters he would still have to come out to bring the ship out of hyperspace, and then to docking with the Rebel ship. So with nothing else to do Xan sat back and began to think of plausible excuses for when Mar finally asked.

To Xan's surprise Mar didn't ask anything right away, instead she took a look at the hyperdrive readouts and went to the auotchef for some food. Leaving Xan alone in the cockpit facing the swirling blackness of hyperspace.

Maybe Rydell was right, it was very possible that the Empire had his father killed in the way Rydell had described. They certainly had the resources, and the accident did provide the perfect cover. Rydell talked so much about the Rebellion that Xan began to wonder why he hadn't joined yet, who knew besides him though. Perhaps Rydell was planning on joining after they graduated from the Academy, so he would stand a better chance of getting placed where he wanted, although with who his father was it would not have been a problem. Eventually Xan would have to ask all these questions.

Marnist came back with a sandwich and two drinks. She handed Xan a hot cup of caf, Xan glowered back at her.

"If you broke into my rum. . ." Xan shook his fist menacingly.

"No, its just milk."

"Alright then." Xan sipped the caf cautiously. For a while the two talked about regular everyday things that they would normally talk about at the shop. The hardest question that Xan had to answer was when Mar had asked him why he finally decided to smuggle with Rydell. There was no fooling Mar, she knew that Xan could make far more money working with Rydell than her father was ever going to pay him. He had said that this was a one time only thing, but she still didn't like the idea of Xan leaving her.

The whole time Mar watched the chrono, hoping that Xan would fall out his secluded self and be ready to answer her questions about what Rydell had meant. She waited as long as she could but almost at the last moment she opened her mouth. The proximity warning sounded and she knew Xan wouldn't answer anything until after they were through with the Rebels.

"Alright, let's get ready to take this thing out of hyperspace."

"Right." Mar answered.

"Get ready to cut in the sublights." Xan hauled back on the hyperdrive levers. "Now." Xan said, and he was pleased to hear the sublights thrum to life.

The _Comet_ came out of hyperpsace just off to the portside of the _No Remorse_. In the distance was Pzob, in orbit around the planet were a group of warships. A pair of Corellian Corvettes, a Nebulon-B frigate and two older Dreadnaught class ships. No doubt they were the Rebels.

"Did you key in the transponder?" Xan asked.

"Of course. Do you think I want to get vaped by a bunch of Rebels. Oh, there was the first hailing signal."

"Where's it coming from?" Xan asked.

"The Dreadnaught that's closest to us. It ID's as the _Vendetta._"

"Encrypt ready?"

"Gees, you sound like this is the first time I've done this."

"It is the first time you've done this." Xan shot back "Transmit the code as soon as we receive the hailing signal."

"Yeah, yeah here it comes." She paused. "Its away, landing instructions will be here soon."

Xan said nothing, he knew that for whatever reason they could come up with they had enough firepower on just one of those ships to obliterate all the ships that were approaching with the _Comet_. "That one." Mar pointed over Xan's shoulder at one of the Corellian Corvettes. "Port side docking collar."

Xan angled the _Comet _towards the ship and sped up. Rydell cut across their vector on his way to rendezvous with one of the ancient Dreadnaughts.

"Why's Rydell headed for that Dreadnaught?"

"Oh come on Mar, you should know that." Xan looked back over his shoulder, and found his young co-pilot staring blankly back at him. "It's because the Blastboat doesn't have a docking port big enough to move the containers through." Xan nestled the _Comet_ right up to the docking collar on the Corvette, and a soft thud confirmed that the two ships were locked together. In an other few minutes the Rebels would have set up an air seal. "Come on let's go meet the Rebels." Xan said and he got up and led the way back to the bulk freight hatch.

Within minutes a youngish looking man who wore the rank of a petty officer stood before Xan and Marnist. He looked, if he wasn't in fact younger than Xan, and there was no way he could have gone to the Academy long enough to obtain that rank. Xan doubted that he'd gone to the Academy at all. Around them the Corvette's crewers hustled to move the containers from the _Comet_ to there ship. Every now and then there would be a groan from one of the crewers who had to bring something from the upper or lower cargo bays.

"Do you need us to help move anything?" Xan offered.

"No thank you Captain. My commander issued strict orders that smugglers are not to be allowed on the ship." The young officer said, looking proverbially down his nose at Xan.

"Then why is one of my companions aboard a Dreadnaught as we speak." Xan said as a verbal parry, showing that he was no uneducated thug.

"No offense Captain, but he's earned our trust. And I've been informed that this is your first run."

"Alright."

"How old are you?" The petty officer asked, turning his attention to Mar. "She your sister."

She scowled at him, blues eyes going a shade cooler as her anger mounted. "Old enough to know how to use a blaster." She waved her DL-44 under his nose. "Or do I need to give you a shooting lesson."

"Cute." He said and went to pinch her cheek. Mar slapped his hand away, and coolly walked back to the cockpit." She's a feisty one."

"You would be too if your mother had died before you ever got a chance to know her." Xan retorted, and headed for the cockpit thinking to himself, or if you father had been sent to the Unknown Regions.

The Rebels scurried around with a desperate sense of paranoia that came from being constantly hunted by the Empire. Through them Xan caught a glimpse of what his future would be if he got absorbed into smuggling with Rydell. The plus side was that it caused them to work fast, which meant both he and they were that much closer to being somewhere safe.

In the cockpit Xan could see Marnist frustration at how the Rebel had treated her. As long as she could remember everyone had talked about how cute she was, how she looked like a little girl, and they always completely forgot the fact that she was sixteen standard years old, and that she was a competent young women who could tear down and rebuild almost anything that flew or drove in the Galaxy.

Everyone that was except for Xan.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let it bother you. It's a big galaxy not like you're ever going to see him again."

"It's not fair Xan." She moaned. "Everybody always thinks that I'm so cute and harmless. They don't even know me! Who the hell are they to say I'm so young, or I'm so cute, or that I'm your sister!" Mar pounded her fist into the armrest.

"Hey! Take it easy on the ship, she's expensive." Xan said in the hopes that Mar would laugh. "What you need is a way to make you taller. Maybe we could rig you up to one of the lifts at the shop, anchor your feet to the ground and pull you taller. Or maybe we can tie you between two of Rydell's nerfs and start them walking in opposite directions." Xan punched her arm playfully, this time getting the laugh he wanted. "You know Mar, I wouldn't change anything about you."

"_Whistling Comet_, you are cleared to leave." A voice crackled over the comm. Mar keyed for a response.

"Thank you and good luck." Xan said as he took the controls and headed for space. He checked his scanners and they showed Rydell's ship emerging from the Dreadnaughts landing bay. He should have left along time ago.

Xan brought the Comet in close to Rydell's port rear side, and they jumped to hyperspace together, headed back to Katal. It was up to the rest of the Captains what they would do after they completed the run. Eventually they would return to Katal.

•••

Haara sat in the park under a tree escaping Carida's summer sun. Her datapad had the scribbled beginnings of a message to Xan. Ever since she'd help him steel his ship back she'd been thinking about him, about the next time she would see him. But most of all she thought about how to get him back from Marnist, she was going to have to do something drastic to get him back.

The odds were so heavily stacked against her that most Corellians wouldn't take her in a bet. After all, they lived on the same planet, worked together, and Mar knew what a quadgun was, whatever they were.

Haara knew that her and Xan were destined to be together, somehow she knew. In the past she had thought that some other guy was the one. Xan was different though, she didn't think they were going to get married, she knew, she _felt_ that they were going to get married.

There was always the possibility that she could go to Katal and find him. Xan was probably still working at the same place. And if he wasn't there she'd just have to go to the Artell Ranch and wait for him.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A thick black column of smoke rose against the orange red of the Katalian sunset. An ominous column because as they got closer Xan began to see where it was. The shop was on fire! Xan knew Marnist was watching, and he was glad not to be able to see her face at that moment. Xan gave more power to the sublights, and as the distance closed Xan began to notice the scurrying forms of people on the ground, along with the flashing strobe lights of the fire tenders.

Mar didn't say a word as she rushed from the cockpit and went to stand by the boarding ramp.

"A5, lock down the boarding ramp controls. Only open them when I give the command." Xan said, he wanted to be able to stay as close to Mar as possible, just in case.

As quickly and as safely as he could Xan put the _Comet_ down, well back of the fire tenders. Even if Mar managed to find a way to override the ramp controls he would have enough time to catch up to her.

It looked hopeless though, all of the main building was on fire, and it had spread to at least one of the outbuildings that Xan could see. Xan hurried back to the boarding ramp where a frustrated Marnist stood hammering her fist against the boarding ramp controls.

"I'm sure everything's alright." Xan said, placing his arm around Mar's shoulder. "A5."

The ramp began to open, knowing that Mar wanted to be there as soon as she could Xan started walking them down as soon as the ramp moved. The young women stayed with Xan long enough to get to the bottom of the ramp, but as soon as her boots hit ferrocrete she took off running. Xan caught up quickly and ran beside her. He knew she was fighting back the tears that seemed to be inevitable, no matter what the outcome.

Before either of them could get to close to the blaze a firefighter stopped them. Mar struggled to get passed him, but she got nowhere. Tears began to cascade down her face.

"Dad!" She shrieked. "Dad!" Over and over again, so loud, and with such force that she began to cough.

Xan bent down and held her around the waist, an ever worsening feeling in the pit of his stomach. Mar fought against him, thrashing and throwing blows, one of them catching Xan in the chin. It was just after that that she broke free from his grip, but this time she ran back towards the _Comet_.

Xan watched but turned back to the firefighter. "What happened here?" He asked.

"We're not sure." The man said lifting his protective facemask. "Some of the flame color makes it look like something touched off some stored korfaise gas."

"I knew that wasn't safe. Any survivors?"

"Not a chance. From all the reports we've got there was an explosion in the main building, and the fire spread to fast for anyone to have a chance."

"Well thanks. If you find anything contact me at the Artell Ranch." Xan said and he began to jog back to the _Comet_. As he got closer A5's mournful keening came to Xan and he picked up the pace. He reached the top of the boarding ramp to see Mar with a fusion cutter ignited and pointed at her left wrist.

"Mar no!" Xan yelled.

"I have to!" Mar screamed. "There's nothing left for me anymore." She said through sobs.

"Yes there is Mar, you have your whole life ahead of you." Xan said as calmly as possible. A5 was making his way closer to Mar, and Xan knew that something was brewing on those electrical circuits.

"No Xan, what am I going to do. My dad is dead, my mom is dead I have no place to go, nowhere to live, no way to make money. There's nothing left for me Xan." She choked.

"Of course there is Mar." The fusion cutter was against her wrist, she gave a little shriek as the jet broke the skin and plunged through tissue. "What am I going to do without you?" Mar looked at him, and paused. "I need you Mar, you're my co-pilot. You're my quadgunner. How would I have gotten off Carida if it wasn't for you?"

"Really?" She paused, and that was what the little droid had been looking for. His electroprod shot out and a bolt of electricity arced out and hit Mar in the right hand. She dropped the fusion cutter. Xan sprinted over and kicked the tool out of her reach. Mar gave up, sat back on her haunches and cried.

Gently Xan took her left arm and began to examine her wounds. Tools were scattered all over the deck of the ship. Blood oozed from a good sized cut that ran across her wrist as well as a series of parallel slashes going down the inside of her forearm.

Xan held the small sobbing girl in his arms, tears plastered sandy colored hair to the side of her face. He squeezed to show he was there, hopefully showing how much he cared.

"It's alright Mar, everything is going to be alright." Xan soothed as he pressed her head against his chest. Mar responded by using her good arm to squeeze Xan the best she could. "I'm here for you Mar." Xan said as she continued to cry. She clung to him with her good arm, feeling somehow safe in Xan's arms as the tears continued to burn her eyes. It was as if Xan was the only thing she could be sure of in the Galaxy.

The sound of Xan's heart thudding away furiously against her ears was soothing. Every time he stroked her hair she felt a little calmer. Even though it was hard for Xan to keep his voice even she found in it a certain soothing quality.

Xan's legs wobbled slightly as he picked her clean up and walked to the med station, where with one hand he began to rummage through the kit for gauze to cover Marnist's arm.

"I know you're in pain right now, and I can't promise you that it will ever go away, but what you were about to do was admit defeat. And that's not the Marnist Kinkla that I know. You have to keep fighting, besides, what would I do without you?" She had stopped crying for the most part. "I'd miss you to much little girl, and where would I get an other co-pilot I could trust as much as you." Xan kissed her on the forehead, and headed for the cockpit, his astromech close behind. Mar looked up at him, slightly fuzzy through teared up eyes, _damn was he handsome_. Mar snuggled closer into his arms.

Once in the cockpit Xan put Mar down in the co-pilots seat, and sealed the cockpit so Mar couldn't escape and try again. As always Rydell was waiting when Xan put the _Comet_ down in the hangar. He heard Rydell's footsteps before he saw Rydell, and when they suddenly got faster Xan looked up.

The only thing Rydell could think of to say was; "What happened Xan."

"I can work for you full time." Xan answered. "The shop blew up."

"Is she asleep?" Rydell asked as they headed into the main part of the house.

"Passed out is more likely. She tried to open up her wrist with a fusion cutter. Could you grab me a good medkit and meet me in my room?"

Rydell headed for the kitchen, they had the most complete medkit because the cooks never got any real deep cuts, which meant all of the larger sized bandages and bacta patches would still be in it. I hope she makes it, Rydell thought, that would be the worst thing for Xan right now, to loose his father and then to loose someone he cared about as much as Mar. Rydell knew that Xan would never admit it but he and Mar had almost been cloned for each other, despite the four year age difference.

When Rydell reached Xan's room, he had put Mar in his bed and covered her up. It looked to Rydell as if Xan had laid her in state.

"How is she?" Rydell asked, holding the medkit out to Xan.

"She's alive, if that's what you're asking." Xan said as he removed the old bandages and began to clean the wounds. Rydell looked on surprised at how deep the cuts had gone. "She's going to make it through, just unconscious from blood lose, pulse is a little weak, she'll make it through." Xan said optimistically, although Rydell began to doubt, and worry. He had only seen Xan like this one time before, when he had come home from the Academy after his father had been exiled. Xan slapped bacta patches over the wounds, covered them with gauze, and rebandaged them.

"What's going to happen to her?" Rydell asked.

"I don't know. I guess she has to stay with us if that's alright."

"So what are we going to do, we're going to the Academy in a month."

Xan didn't say anything; he just sat there and stroked the stubble on his chin. "If I got you the credits, could you have someone slice into the Imperial records and change her age so she could got to the Academy with us?"

Rydell nodded. "It's going to cost you a bantha load though, like twenty thousand to change the records, and if you're looking at getting her into IPEC with us, you're probably looking at sixty to seventy thousand. Even if I got you on every run for the Rebels until we left you couldn't make that much. You might be able to get up enough credits to get her transferred at the beginning of the second semester."

Xan shook his head. "I can't be away from her for that long."

"Well what are you going to do, you don't have the money, I can't lend you that much, and unless you go crook I can't see making that much money."

Xan got a smirk on his face, as he got a glass of rum. "I don't have the money, but Xander Parck does."

_No, he didn't just say that_. To go into his old accounts was insane; first it would let the Imperial know exactly where he was. Security procedures would almost certainly force Xan to confront a being that would be able to visually identify him.

"That's insane Xan, and you know how crazy it is if I'm saying it's insane!"

"Don't worry I've got an idea."

"Come on Grand Admiral Xan, you know I'm all for doing crazy stuff and gambling, but this is going to be like trying to hold your breath in vacuum! You can't get away with it! The Imps will be able to track you for sure."

"It's worth a shot."

Rydell threw up his hands in surrender. "Alright fine, go to the Unknown Regions and rot with Thrawn! See if I care."

"Good, because you know you're going with me."

"Oh no they won't." Rydell shook a finger in Xan's direction. "They won't catch me, and if they catch you I know you won't sell me out." Rydell stormed out of the room, only to poke his head back in the door in an other minute. "Sorry about earlier at the warehouse. I said some things I shouldn't have. Especially in front of Mar."

"It's alright, when's the next shipment for the Rebels."

"An other couple of days, Mar will be ready by then right?"

"Right put me on it, and every one from now on."

Raiding his old accounts would be dangerous, but it had to be done, and the less he had to take out the better his chances of getting away with it.

Xan went over to the computer, and pulled up his music files. With his nerves the way they were, and his body shaking from adrenaline he needed something to calm him down. The chords of a classic Alderaanian waltz filtered into the room, in his nerf hide chair. Xan looked at Mar laying on his bed, so young and peaceful, not that he was old by almost any species life scale, but in the past six months he had aged so much that he sometimes looked on Rydell as a child.

"Who's Xander Parck?"

Xan's body went cold, like a mynock had latched onto his spine and sucked out all his body heat.

"I am, Mar."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Captain Parck sat in his quarters poring over the latest reports from the Katal garrison. They reported a large credit shift from Xan's personal account to an other that the Captain could not ID the name. It was a large credit shift, thirty-five thousand.

It wouldn't be long before he and Xan were together again, even if it was in the vast uncharted wilds of the Unknown Regions. Together though, they would could conquer incredible swaths of space. And defend the civilized parts before they ever knew they'd been threatened.

That was why Thrawn was out there.

Brining with him an increasing number of young Chiss volunteers to crew fighters and ships in Unity Fleet.

It wouldn't be long at all.

•••

Early morning Katal sunlight filtered in through the window to Xan's room. It was not until the golden light splashed over Xan's face that he woke up. Eyes closed he began to take in his surroundings. Something was wrong he thought. There was a small body snuggled up against his. It wasn't an animal, they had not pets and a bantha would crush him.

Finally, with all other ideas expended Xan opened his eyes, afraid of what he might find. He was holding Marnist. She snored quietly in his arms. Xan had to fight the impulse to pull away. What had happened last night? No way, nothing happened, there was no way it just felt so. . ._wrong_.

Xan didn't know it but Mar had been awake for a while, basking in the warmth of the sun and feeling as good as she could feel. Being held by Xan certainly helped. She felt safe in Xan's arms, she cared about him, and he cared too, she knew it. She loved him.

As soon as she felt Xan stir she began to snore. Any amount of time she could be held by Xan made her feel better about everything, life, her future. If Xan hadn't been the only thing she could count on life would have been perfect.

Xan began to nudge her: "Come on, get up. We have to see about getting you into the Academy." He sounded a little shaky but that had to be because he'd just woken up.

"What?" She asked, "The Academy, I'm to young."

"Not when I get through with you. Besides, I can't leave you here on Katal alone."

_See how much he cares_. She thought.

"Now let's get some food. I'll meet you downstairs."

Rydell was waiting, with two plates of food set out when Xan got downstairs. There was a look in Xan's eyes, and the way he was carrying himself, and Rydell knew something was wrong.

"You look like death."

"Yeah, well you would too if you'd let one more person in on the secret of who you really are."

"What! You've got to be kidding me." Xan shook his head in response. "And I thought you were sane."

"I'm all she's got. There is no way Mar will turn me in."

"Stang. You do realize that the bounty on your head is getting bigger by the week. All she has to do is alert a squad of Stormtroopers and walk you into an ambush."

"She wouldn't do that. Now let's focus on what we've got to do. You'll go and setup an account for me to put the credits into. Then I go in a day later and transfer the credits. A few days after that we empty it out."

"You just keep getting crazier by the second, don't you. It'll never work."

"It'll have to, or Mar will never get into the Academy."

"Alright." Rydell said skeptically.

"It's only crazy of I get caught, until then, it's just a gamble. How much do you think you can put up? I know you're going to say all of it, but I can't let you do that."

"Alright then. I'll put up twenty thousand. But you've gotta promise me something." Rydell stopped.

"What?" Xan asked, not sure he really wanted to know.

"You have to take out enough to finish the _Nova Wolf_." He paused. "I'm tired of that thing taking up space in my hangar and not making me any money."

"An extra twenty thousand, alright? Whatever is left over after we get Mar into the Academy will go towards the _Wolf_."

"It's only crazy if we get caught." Rydell offered.

•••

The day had started off good, with the news that Mar had been assigned to IPEC with Xan and Rydell, but that had been the high point. Rydell told Xan about a good smuggling run for the Rebels it just went downhill.

As was his custom Rydell gave Xan and Marnist a private almost briefing aboard the _No Remorse. _That was when Rydell had told them about one of the other smugglers who the Rebels were almost a hundred percent sure was selling their location to the Empire. So Rydell was going to solve the problem, after the suspect had made the delivery. The Vigo had been very clear on that.

Now Xan found himself at the controls of the _Comet_, engines thrumming gently behind him. He was alone in the cockpit, Mar stationed in the upper quadgun. Rydell wanted backup if it got out of hand.

Without hesitation Xan followed Rydell out, taking up position aft and to his starboard side. That was the last thing that went according to plan.

"Stay sharp Mar, this is it." Xan said, referring to the target freighter.

"I know, I know." Mar complained. "You just concentrate on giving me a good shot."

Xan followed as Rydell brought them in behind the snitch. They were on their exit vector, so once the target was eliminated they would head home. That was when the Star Destroyer appeared in front of them. A gleaming white vibroblade ripping open the black void of space.

"Xan, Star Destroyer on our exit vector!"

"I saw it!" Xan retorted. "Shields up."

Two blue streaks shot out from Rydell's ship as he launched a pair of proton torpedoes at the freighter.

All the freighters broke separately, except for Xan who followed Rydell with ease. The well-armed pair of Dreadnaughts were lumbering to from an escape corridor for the smaller Rebel ships.

"Xan." Rydell's voice burst through the static. "The Rebels need cover. They want our firepower on that Star Destroyer or it's TIEs. Probably going to be a big bonus."

"Yeah, what about the others?" Xan asked as he noticed an other freighter jump to hyperspace.

"They run, no credits for them." Rydell responded as he looped back towards the Star Destroyer.

"I hate to interrupt the meeting of future Grand Admirals," It was Mar. "But we've got a squadron of TIEs inbound."

"Alright, first pass with torps." Rydell called.

Xan flicked fire control over torpedoes. "A5, separate targets, dual fire." Xan ordered, and hit the accelerator to keep up with Rydell as Rydell burned space for the TIEs. Xan waited for Rydell to fire, they were almost to close, but he knew they gave the Imps no time to react, and Xan noticed four blips wink out.

"We just have to keep them occupied long enough for the Rebels to get away." Rydell said as they pulled a tight turn to wade back in on the Imps.

Mar pumped shots of scarlet energy at anything that came within range of her quadgun, claiming one kill on the first pass. She saw the bolts pop the canopy off the TIE just before a missile hit it, no doubt that she was going to loose that kill.

Rydell brought them in behind one of the Imp fighters and Mar swiveled around to cover their rear. After all she couldn't shoot that close to Rydell's ship and Xan had a quadgun facing forward. The Comet banked hard beneath her, the feeling all but negated by the ships acceleration compensator. Stars fell way from her as Xan pulled a roll and followed a TIE to put them on a heading in the opposite direction and 180 degrees removed from where they'd started. By the end of this Xan had taken the lead position.

"You have the lead." Rydell called, and Xan saw the last of the Dreadnaughts hit hyperspace. "Right." Xan said through clenched teeth, focused on vaping the TIE before heading out. The Imp pilot was good, jinking left and right, while bobbing the ship up and down. There was a point that Xan didn't reach to often, but now was one of those times when frustration took control. He pulled the trigger and brought the lasers so they tattooed the Imp, melting away the lower part of the of the port wing, shearing off the stabilizer and tracking diagonally across the hull before the engines exploded.

"Let's get clear." Rydell said. "Follow me."

The _No Remorse_ rolled over Xan and Mar in the _Comet _and they sped towards the ghost like Imperial Star Destroyer. And Rydell thought Xan was insane.

"Right up the ridgeline." Rydell again, and they pushed max power.

"Hey let's give a little gift. Say a couple of proton torpedoes across the bridge." Xan said.

Rydell laughed back, "You got it."

The crew fired ranging shots at the approaching pair of smugglers, almost to small to hit, in the next couple of minutes it would be impossible.

"A5, chart our hyperspace jump for just after we cross the bridge." Xan said and switched back over to torps.

Xan expertly followed Rydell as they skimmed along the hull of the Star Destroyer, meters from hitting the hull. No turbolaser crew could track them so close, and at such high speed, unless the pair headed straight for a battery. Rydell pulled into a climb close to the superstructure; he knew that no battery commander would shoot at them now, especially as a miss would result in damage to their own ship.

"Ready Xan?"

"Ready?"

"Fire!"

Four torps streaked for the bridge of the Star Destroyer, although Xan, Rydell, and Mar were safely in hyperspace when the last of the torpedoes shattered the bridge transparasteel and exploded among the crew.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Rydell, Makazu, Xan and Marnist were in their cabin aboard a starliner bound for Carida. The members of the IPEC group had to report to the Imperial Citadel a week early for all the fanfare the surrounded the creation of a new group. It would all start exactly a week before the semester with a celebratory ball held to introduce the brave volunteers to the Media, and to the Empire.

None of which Xan and Rydell were particularly looking foreword to. They both knew that every time some reporter snapped a holo, or stuck a microphone in their face it ran the risk of someone seeing them who could turn them in. It would hopefully be as simple as keeping to the shadows. Maybe they could find a couple of local girls so they could be on the dance floor for most of the night.

The liner was on approach to the planet, all passengers confined to quarters as the crew put the ship in orbit. In a couple of hours they would be planetside. Xan emerged form the cabins refresher station wearing the green IPEC uniform, an obvious departure from the standard Imperial gray. Xan secured his blasters to his hips, and he contemplated the color choice. They were an exploration group, and not part of the navy.

The insignia on the left shoulder was half an Imperial insignia, the other half being an outstretched hand. The whole thing was outlined in orange, with the hand being stitched in the same color. A letter had explained that the hand was meant to show the Empire welcoming new worlds. Xan and Rydell scoffed at the idea.

Marnist restrained herself in her bed. She hadn't thought there was anything that could make Xan look better, but she was wrong. All she wanted to do was jump up and kiss Xan, although that was higher than she could jump. Xan would just have to cooperate. It was her turn next and for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling that nothing was going to fit right, except maybe the boots.

To her surprise the uniform almost fit right, just a little to loose in some places and a little too tight in others. With all the purpose she could muster she strapped the DL-44 to her belt, although somebody would probably make her remove it, she was only an enlisted soldier as opposed to Rydell, a Captain, or Xan, a Lieutenant. The boots were right on target, and the most uncomfortable things she had ever worn. No wonder Imperial officers acted like they had a mynock attached to their butt.

"Little big, huh?" Xan asked.

"You just need to put in some weight, that's all." Makazu said as he scoffed down a piece of Nerf jerky.

"Yeah like you right?" Rydell shot a Mak.

Makazu was a far stretch from a Hutt, but still bigger and heavier than Xan or Rydell, with pale freckled skin blond hair and blue eyes. He was a good pilot especially when behind the controls of his X-wing, but he really excelled at hand-to-hand combat, and arena in which he let no set of rules dictate how he acted. A good joke about his size was the best way to keep him quiet.

"Oh good one." Was all Makazu could manage.

"Come on, let's go. The shuttles are boarding." Xan said as he hefted his pack to his shoulder.

•••

An hour later they were four more uniforms lost in the sea of gray. First glance made it appear as if the cadets outnumbered the locals, besides that the first thing that everybody but Xan noticed was the heavier than standard gravity.

Before anything could happen the group went for their barracks to drop their packs. Their billets were divided by a common lounge in the middle of all the billets that formed a U shape. Rydell and Makazu were billeted together, with Xan and Marnist in another.

The rooms contained only the bare minimum, two beds with a footlocker at the end of each, a full refresher station, and a nightstand between the beds.

"Welcome to the Imperial Military." Xan said to Mar. "Less than what you need and nothing that you want."

_He's right_, she thought, _except for one thing_.

•••

"What are you doing the end of the week?" Rydell asked Haara, who had managed to find the four of them in the little cantina. For a second Mar thought Rydell was going to ask her to the ball. Leaving Xan to her.

"I don't have any plans. Why?"

"Xan needs a date for this ball in a few days. I think you should go with him." Rydell said, knowing Xan wouldn't. Xan was almost as surprised as Mar; he snapped his head up to protest but caught those beautiful blue eyes and stopped.

"Of course, I'd love to. Do you want to get a drink?"

Xan got up and followed her to the bar. As soon as they were out of earshot Mar slugged Rydell in the arm.

"What are you doing? You know I wanted to go with Xan to the ball." She barked at Rydell.

"Yeah, but think about it. One you're already going and you'll be just as much of a media target as Xan. If you two are together you make one big target." Rydell pointed his finger at her. "If the commanders think you and Xan are involved, shall we say they'll probably ship you out of the unit. And you don't want that do you?"

"No." Mar conceded.

"So, at least you get to room with him." Rydell winked.

Stop! Xan thought as he looked at the young women sitting next to him. There was something about her that was drawing Xan in like a tractor beam, and there was no way he could bring the Empire down on her too when he got caught. To Xan it was no longer if he got caught, but when he got caught.

"So what brings you here?" Xan asked, hoping she would say something to contradict what he believed about her.

"Nothing really. Just had a feeling. I usually don't come to places like this. But I'm glad I did." She smiled at Xan. Damn, she was perfect. "Nice to see you back. How much longer?"

"I don't know, four years maybe."

"Weren't you already here?"

"Yeah, but I went home before the end of the semester. Then I got transferred to this IPEC unit. That's the ball we're going to. So the Empire can trot us out and say look at what we're doing, here's your brave new crop of explorers.

"IPEC, what's that?"

"Independent Planetary Exploration Company."

"And you didn't volunteer for something like that?"

"Nope, got assigned."

"It's kind of stuffy in here, let's go for a walk."

•••

Thump! "Stang! . ." And that was all Xan caught of the string of expletives coming from the corridor, followed by a couple of thumps and crashes. Xan sat up, and brushed hair from his eyes.

"How was your date last night?" Mar asked, almost demanding.

Xan blinked sleep from his eyes. There she stood, hands on her hips, lips pursed and her eyes menacingly dark. "It wasn't a date." Xan offered. Another set of crashes came from outside. "What's going on out there?"

"You left with her. Where did you go?"

"Why, did you want her, because I don't think she's your type." Even more crashes. Xan threw his blankets off, got pants on and went out to the hall. "Hey bantha brains! Do you know what time they wake us up here?"

"Erh, 0430." The other said. He was holding a large solid case, and other smaller one was on the floor.

"Than you also know that we have a week before all that starts, and if it's alright with you, id like to enjoy sleeping till noon as long as I can. Now what the krif is in the case? And who are you?"

"I'm Darick Noo-gin. I've been assigned to the IPEC group. And I'm trying to get my computer in the door."

"What the hell do you need those for. The Academy has good computers."

"Not for slicing." Noo-gin shot back.

Xan looked over the new arrival, he was about the same height as Xan, of stronger build. His hair was disheveled close crop under a red hat. His eyes were almost intelligent gray, then they went to an almost vacant stare.

"Here." Xan yanked the case from Noo-gin's hands, turned it ninety degrees and walked through the door. After putting it down on one of the beds Xan pointed his finger at the newcomer. "If you ever wake me up again you'll be putting on your boots with robotic arms." Xan admonished.

"Right." Noo-gin said and he disappeared into the room.

"Krifing moron." Xan muttered, before returning to his room to prepare for the day ahead.

Rydell sat waiting for Xan at a table, spreading his food around the plate, eating slowly. I wonder what she did to make him so tired. Rydell thought. He knew that Xan and Haara were good together, although what happened between the two of them was out his control. If it worked right she would be a great distraction from Marnist.

Xan cared about Mar, and so far the only thing that had really stopped him was bosses daughter syndrome, the age difference and Xan's unwillingness to let anybody but Rydell get involved in his problems. With one of those problems eliminated and Xan and Mar sharing a room together she would get him, if for no other reason than just being there. At least Mar knew the consequences now too, maybe she would back off. The odds of Xan and Haara being together after they left the Academy were almost too insane for even a Corellian to bet on.

Down the stairs strode Xan and Marnist, of course. Rydell noted how displeased she looked. Just Xan and Haara being together had done that. Now Rydell had to find out if there was a good reason for the younger women to be mad.

"Nice of you two to finally show up. You're lazier than a kriffing Hutt!"

"Who me?" Xan asked defensively, "You have to be talking about her. Have you met any of the others yet?"

"No, you?" Rydell responded.

"Just one, Darick Noo-gin, in the room next to ours. Makes me wonder if this whole IPEC thing isn't some sort of punishment."

"That bad?" Rydell asked, Xan only rolled his eyes in response. "Let's go get some caf." Rydell said throwing a sidelong glance in the direction of the line. "You comin' Mar?"

"You know I don't drink that stuff." She answered with a screwed up face.

"So what happened?" Rydell asked when they'd assumed their spots at the end of the line.

"Nothing really." Xan shrugged. "We had a drink and then we went for a walk. Mar's got this crazy idea that it was a date."

"Well Xan, most normal beings call having a drink and going for a walk a date." Rydell mocked.

"There wasn't even any contact, and you know I'm not going to willingly ruin someone's life. I won't date, I won't love, and I'll die alone."

"But it's alright to ruin my life. I'm hurt Xan, and what about Mar?"

"Mar's different, she needs me."

"She loves you."

"I can't."

"Why not, what reason, come on give me a reason Xan."

"They'll throw her out of the unit. She's two young, she's . . ."

"The only one that works is the first one." Rydell interrupted. "You have two women after you, you have to choose one."

"And you mean Haara."

"She's good for you Xan."

"And Mar isn't."

"Haara's not in the unit. Come on let's get back before Mar thinks I'm a threat too."

For the rest of the day Marnist and Haara filled Xan's head, and part of that was because he had absolutely nothing to distract him. Music didn't help, if anything it almost made it worse. Rydell was right, Xan had to choose, as long as he didn't it would affect Mar. Mar someone he cared about, the implications of what Rydell had said involved crushing her young and vital spirit.

Mar could never really hide how she felt about Xan. She loved him as much as humanly possible. She and Xan had so many things in common, and subconsciously Xan knew he'd always wanted girl with sandy blonde hair and just that shade of blue in Mar's eyes. Leaving all that aside, she could be trusted, and Xan had already done that. Besides Rydell and Makazu, Mar was the only one who knew who Xan really was.

For all that though, Haara had a leg up. Mar was physically more attractive, and Xan still wasn't sure if Haara could be trusted. But there was something about her that was drawing Xan in. Whenever they spent time together Xan found she was eroding his defenses, and eventually he knew the only thing that would prevent them from being together was his own refusal to get her involved. But that wasn't going to work for her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The room was dark, as all the others undoubtedly were, maybe Rydell was awake, but everybody else would be sleeping an hour after midnight local time. It was times like this, in the middle of the night that Xan realized how alone in the Galaxy he was. His father had been shipped off to the Unknown Regions, the friends he had made from the first time he was at the Academy could not be trusted. He had no family, and only three other people knew who he really was, a fugitive, a target.

Realizing the high value target he was Xan had shut himself off from personal contact. It wasn't right to bring his problem down on other people. Rydell had always been the one person that Xan could trust, and Mar had come along side him, but Xan still felt wrong. When the Imperials or bounty hunters caught up with him, Mar and Rydell would find themselves staring down the barrels of E-11s.

Not allowing himself, for even a moment to drop his guard had made him very lonely, just Rydell, Mar and to a lesser extent Haara and Makazu, but he needed someone to love, and the only person that seemed to make sense was Marnist, lying no more than a meter and a half away, but she was in the unit making things that much more difficult.

How many nights, Xan wondered, had he been awake in bed like this, how many more nights would go the same way over the course of his life? Would he live long enough to be plagued by these nights? Xan rolled over on his side, and eventually slipped into sleep.

•••

It was two days before all the IPEC volunteers had arrived at the Academy. Except for the four Katalians the group personnel was wide ranging, with cadets hailing from Corellia, Corulag, Etti, Alderaan and Cloud City to name a few. Dim-Ilek-Vors had shown up and recognized Xan when he was heading for his billet with Darick Noo-gin.

The billet to the left of Xan and Marnist was occupied by Major Davic, apparently the ranking officer for the unit. Rydell was a Captain and Xan was a Lieutenant. He was about the same height as Xan, but of slighter build, and with an almost whining nasally voice. Xan and Mar didn't like him. Rydell and Makazu made him a target.

•••

Xan and Haara strode between the rows of reporters on either side as they headed towards the ballroom. Rydell was in front of them with the Major in front of Rydell. With all holos and news footage being taken Xan never for a moment doubted that he would be recognized. He took a deep breath, held his head high, and moved onward.

Haara patted his hand, and looked up at Xan. "Nervous?" She asked.

"Of course not. When you've been through what I have, things like this can't even make you think of being nervous." Xan whispered back before smiling for a reporter and photographer. "Besides, it'll all be over soon."

Xan, Rydell, Marnist, Makazu and Haara were all seated at the same table, with other members of the unit, reporters and dignitaries, and high-ranking Army and Navy officers being dispersed around the room. Of course an all-human band played classical selections from many cultures.

Haara was stunning, far beyond what Xan had thought possible. She was wearing a dark blue gown, with dangling earrings and a necklace too. Underneath the holonet company lights her eyes seemed to sparkle even more. She was beautiful, the type of girl Xan would have taken home before he'd left the Academy. . .

There was dancing before dinner, mostly waltzes from the Core worlds. When the band struck up the chords of an Alderaaninan waltz Haara gazed at Xan, before he finally asked her to dance. Again the fact the she knew how to waltz amazed him, and when she started dance signing. . .

Noo-gin made his way over to the table just as Xan and Haara got up to dance. Rydell watched them, they looked almost perfect together, roaming back and forth across the dance floor, gliding and spinning, and dance signing?

"Uh oh." Rydell uttered.

"Uh oh what?" Mar almost jumped across the table to grab him by the collar, but stopped when she remembered where she was.

"Darick, did you see that?" Rydell asked.

"I think so, but I was never taught _all_ the dance signs." Noo-gin's gray eyes were fixed on the couple out on the dance floor.

"What's dance signing?" Mar asked a growl in her voice.

Rydell looked at Noo-gin and then back at Mar. "It's a kind of courtship thing." Rydell said vaguely.

"You mean like dating?" She ground out.

"I guess." Rydell shrugged.

"Exactly." Noo-gin interjected. Mar shot him a turbolaser stare. "Xan doesn't see them though, he hasn't responded." Noo-gin answered.

"No he sees them, he's choosing to ignore them." Rydell said. Mar pulled out her DL-44 and checked the power level.

"I don't think it's anything to get messy over. Xan's not even paying attention." Noo-gin offered.

"Hey Noo-gin, throw this at Davic." Rydell tossed a roll across the table to the Alderaanian, to provide a distraction, because if Noo-gin ever told Mar what that last sign had been Mar was liable to shoot Haara right there and then.

Noo-gin tossed the roll in the air, and tried to look inconspicuous as he glanced around the room hoping no one would notice him, or the hunk of bread that would be flying across the room. With a quick flash of the arm the roll was in-flight, eventually connecting with Davic's head, knocking his hat over his eyes. Everyone at the table turned away, stifling laughs, like nothing had even happened.

As the last few notes of the waltz drifted into the night the lights dimmed, and a voice began to boom over the public address speakers. A holograph of a Blastboat appeared in the middle and began to rotate slowly.

"This is the Seinar Fleet Systems GAT 12e Skipray Blastboat. A half a dozen of these long range E models have been issued to this brand new IPEC squadron." An officer wearing the regular slate gray uniform was speaking. He wore Admirals insignias.

"The mission laid down by Emperor Palpatine for this Independent Planetary Expedition Company is that the group be able to remain independent from the Imperial fleet or planetary base for four standard months. They also must be able to explore, map, and catalog any new species they come across.

"The Blastboats array of weapons will allow the group to defend themselves against any hostile natives, or on the off chance they encounter a Rebel stronghold." He bowed his head. "One of the first missions our expeditious young men and women will undertake is finding a suitable planet for the survivors of the Rebel destruction of Alderaan." The holoprojector began to shows scenes of Alderaan's beautiful sprawling grass plains, and land locked oceans. "To assure we find a suitable Alderaan substitute Darick Noo-gin, an Alderaan native will be among the founding IPEC members. Tonight, it is my pleasure to present to you and the entire Empire the founding members of IPEC."

The Admiral bowed and began to clap, when the glow panels came back on at full strength the twenty-four members of the IPEC squadron stood.

"Tomorrow these gallant volunteers will begin training for their mission, now sit back, and enjoy the meal and the rest of the night."

•••

After brining Haara back to her home that night Xan headed straight back to the IPEC compound, head low. Marnist had been waiting for him prepared to berate him at any second. When she saw him though that all changed. He looked tired, and almost lost, when he went straight for bed she knew something was wrong.

Xan flicked the glow panels off, and lay in bed trying to get to sleep, but it refused to come. Two hours later he found himself still staring into the dark. The night had been wonderful, except for that niggling about the Rebels destroying Alderaan being a boldfaced lie. The problem was Haara. She was amazing, beautiful and funny, and somehow she was making Xan fall for her, regardless of how many times he told himself not to get involved with her. He would only hurt her in the end, maybe even get her killed, and he could never live with that.

Xan rolled up on his left side, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. She had been dance signing, at the time Xan had pretended not to see, but she kept doing it until she gave him the sign saying she would accept a kiss, Xan had done nothing. To many people were already involved in his problem for him to justify endangering another.

In the middle of all his thinking there was a sudden soft taping on the door. Xan flicked on the glow panels and headed for the door. He opened it only to find Rydell, Makazu, Klown, and Noo-gin standing on the opposite side, all with slightly worried faces.

"Didn't think you would be awake." Rydell whispered as he pushed his way into the room, the others quick on his heals.

"What's going on?" Xan asked.

"We're in a little trouble if we don't find a place to hide."

"What'd you guys do?"

"We'll tell you latter, just hide us." Noo-gin pressured.

"Fine get in the 'fresher." Xan said as he closed the door. Rydell yanked Mar out of bed.

"Come on we're going to need you in here." He said.

Xan turned off the glow panels and jumped back into bed. Five standard minutes later there was a strong knock at the door. "Open up Hodgins." A voice boomed.

"Hey, shut up I'm sleeping." Xan barked disgruntledly

"No, you get your carcass out here now."

Xan got out of bed, and opened the door for the Imperial security officer, standing next to one of the IPEC members, skinny underneath his uniform, black skin glistening with perspiration.

"What's going on?" Xan asked faking a yawn.

"A few of your colleageus have been causing some trouble. I want to see if they're here." The security officer said.

"Not in here." Xan responded. "But you're welcome to look around." Xan motioned them into the room.

"Where's your roommate?"

"_She's_ in the 'fresher." Xan answered.

"Alright then, we'll check back in the morning. Goodnight Lieutenant, try to find something out." The security officer and the other man left without another word, almost immediately the fresher door opened and Mar shot out.

"Who touched my butt?" Mar demanded,

"It was a tight fit in there." Noo-gin said. He quickly wished he hadn't. Mar wound up and slapped him across the face.

"Hands off!" She barked, and sat down on her bed.

"Thanks Xan, we owe you one." Rydell said.

"Anytime." Xan smiled.

"What did you guys do?" Mar asked.

"Don't answer that. Those slugs are comin' back here in the morning and I want to be able to tell them with a clear conscience that I have no idea what happened."

"Alright, I'll tell you at breakfast tomorrow then." Rydell winked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Xan smiled. "Now get out of here."

"Hold on." Rydell got a sinister look on his face. "Davic's room is next door right?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"Oh nothing." Rydell ran over to the wall, followed by the other three and began to pound on the wall. As soon as a muffled yelling started from the other room Rydell and the others ran from the room, closing the door behind them. Seconds latter someone was pounding on the door, again.

"Lieutenant Hodgins, what was that banging just now." The Major demanded in his nasally voice.

"I didn't hear anything, how 'bout you Mar?" She shook her head. "See nothing, I bet it was thunder." Xan leaned against the doorjamb. "Why don't you go back to sleep."

"I am your superior officer Lieutenant, you will show me the respect I deserve." Davic whined.

"You may go back to sleep Major, sir." Xan said, throwing a sloppy salute.

"Such insolence will not be tolerated in my unit, this will stop immediately or I will have you thrown out of the unit."

Xan closed the door, Davic went on ranting for another minute or two, but he quickly gave up. When Xan turned around Mar was sitting up in bed.

"You weren't asleep were you?" She asked. "What's wrong Xan?"

"Nothing, just worried about what's going to happen to me, how being born my fathers son is going to hurt anybody who knows who I am." Xan shrugged. "Especially how they're going to come down on you and Rydell. Maybe I should just turn myself in and except my fate in the Unknown Regions."

"No Xan, I'm here for you every step of the way."

That was when he saw her, not as a friend, or even a cute friend, but as the beautiful and devoted young women that she was. The way the light played across the strands of gold in her hair. Her intelligent blue eyes. He walked over to where she sat on the bed, and put his hands in her shoulders, the skin was soft, smooth, amazing.

Mar was what I needed , Xan thought. He needed someone besides Rydell, and it wouldn't have been right to involve Haara. Mar was already involved, and she loved him. Xan sat down next to her on the bed.

"You know I care about you." Mar said. "And I know Haara does too." Mar lowered her head, placing a hand on Xan's leg. "I realize I can't make you love me, so I just want you to be happy."

"That's good, because I want that to be with you." Xan leaned down and kissed Mar on the lips, he pulled away and looked at her, and could almost see the joy radiating from her face. A dainty mechanics hand ran across Xan's cheek, pulling him back to her. This time she kissed him passionately. Together they fell backwards onto the bed.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Quiet down in here!" Abruptly all mummers of conversation stopped, and all eyes were on the Colonel that had just walked into the briefing room. He stood a good two meters tall, of powerful build, with dark thinning hair. "I'm Colonel Aylard, your training supervisor. You will all address me as Supervisor or Colonel Aylard. Is that clear?" He barked.

"Yes Supervisor Aylard." The twenty four IPEC recruits barked in unison.

Despite the Supervisors tendency to leave 'R's unpronounced, Xan decided he was a normal human being, and had probably seen his fair share of combat.

"First of all I gotta tell ya to forget everything they said last night. That is except your ships. You all have been selected for a top secret covert operations unit, answerable only to the Grand Admirals, and the Emperor himself. The exploration story is just a cover to divert public attention.

"You will all find at least one data card where you're sitting. This data card tells you what ship you've been assigned to. It also outlines what your primary specialty is, along with your secondary specialty. Major, put that datapad down. I did not give you permission, now pay attention." Colonel Aylard yelled the last sentence at the Major. Every single one of the IPEC recruits jumped at the sudden change in volume.

"On the same datacard you will find your schedule. The officers have an additional two cards, one is the manual for Commissioned Officers in the Imperial Military. The other is filled with basic tactics, which you will learn more about in separate classes.

"Your objectives are in covert infiltration, surveillance and advanced strike team. Your ships have been modified with stealth armor; this makes them almost invisible to sensors, without a cloaker. You will be better trained than any Stormtrooper outfit. You have the rest of the day to get familiar with your crew members. Dismissed!" The Colonel strode from the briefing room, and there was the clatter of datapads being removed and cards being inserted.

Rydell watched Mar walk over to Xan, and place her hand affectionately on Xan's shoulder. He noted it, but knew that now in the briefing room with Mar right there was not the right time to confront Xan. So he turned to his datapad, and more precisely to the crew listings, and their specialties.

His name was at the top of the alphabetical list, Artell, Rydell. Captain. Demolitions. Further on down he found Xan was the unit's sniper. That didn't seem right, especially since Xan, or any of the others had spent absolutely no time on a firing range since they arrived. Even further on down he found that Marnist had been tagged as the units repair tech. It was as if someone had placed them here and assigned the jobs because it had been ordered by someone higher up the chain of command. Something he would have to bring up with Xan.

Quickly Rydell found the crew listing for his Blastboat, he was the pilot, with Makazu and Maijongh Dee working the weaponry, Olsaa the units only other women besides Mar would operate the sensors, and copilot. She was also the medic.

Xan's Blastboat consisted of him, as pilot, with Mar copiloting. Darik Noo-gin, and Dim-Ilek-Vors would handle the guns. The list showed that Noo-gin was a slicer and Vors specialized in covert insertion/extraction.

Training was going to begin just after breakfast the next morning. One more day of freedom.

Later that day Xan and Rydell and the other Katalians sat down to lunch.

"Did you look at the specialist listing, or did you dive right into the Manual for Commissioned Officers in the Imperial Military?" Rydell chided Xan, as he shoveled some soup into his mouth.

"The punishment continues." Xan chuckled as he eyed the Alderaanian sitting a couple of tables away.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to fly with Mar either." Rydell chuckled, he noticed the look she gave him, not as mean as others, she seemed to hold a certain air about her, like her life was perfect.

"I can't believe I got stuck with that Alderaanian moron."

"I'm sure you'll do alright with him." Rydell slapped his friends back. Mar got up and winked at Xan before heading off to get an other drink. Rydell stopped eating and looked at Xan.

"What?" Xan asked. Eventually everyone gets disturbed by someone staring at them with a demented looking grin and Kamarian eyed stare."

"So what did you and Mar do last night, huh?"

"Nothing just went to sleep." Xan said, seeing exactly where Rydell was going with this.

"With each other?" Makazu interjected.

"In the same bed, but not like you think."

"Right Xan, so is she part Bothan, or Shistavanen, did the parts not line up or something?"

"Come on Rydell, if anybody would understand I thought it would have been you."

Rydell and Makazu stopped laughing. "What do you mean?" Rydell asked.

"Well, you don't drink a wine right after you cork the bottle. You let it age, mature, if you will. Our relationship needs to mature."

"But you didn't put a cork in her?" Mak asked.

"No, but at least I have a chance to." Xan shot back with a grin.

"How about being assigned sniper, and Mar being assigned a mechanic." Rydell asked.

"Convenient." Xan shrugged.

"But none of us have been on a shooting range. It's more likely that they would assign someone who they knew could do the job."

"Hey, I can do the job." Xan retorted.

"I know that, Mak, and Mar know it too. But the Imps didn't, well besides a couple of them." Rydell said, alluding to Xan's father.

"That's crazy it's just some stupid coincidence." Xan said and he began to eat again.

"How you guys doin'?" They all jolted when the Colonel plopped down next to Xan.

"We're doing alright Supervisor Aylard." Xan answered.

"You boys remind me of myself when I served with Lord Vader in the Clone Wars. You are going to be the Empires back bone. You're going to help destroy the Rebellion."

"What did you do? What unit were you in?" Xan asked.

"Well, uh, what I did was demolitions, blew those separatist droids to pieces." The Colonel launched into an uproar of laughter. "Can't wait to see you in the sims in a couple of months." With that the Colonel got up and left the table. As soon as he was out of earshot the three friends began to laugh amongst themselves.

"He's full of Bantha crap." Rydell said between laughs.

"Who is?" Mar asked as she sat down.

"The Supervisor." Makazu answered.

"Are you going to tell him that?" Mar shot back.

All three of them looked down at the table, thinking the same thing; he would kill me.

•••

Xan woke up the next morning holding Mar, there was no light coming from the outside. The smooth skin of her partially clad back pressed against his chest, strands of sweet smelling hair tickled his nose. He knew that waking up like this should have been perfect, but there was something missing, something intangible, something that Mar didn't have.

Something Haara did.

Xan propped himself up on one elbow, and kissed Mar's cheek, he saw the smile tug at the corner of her lips. "Come on, it's time to get up." Xan said.

"I'm up." She responded, eyes still hidden beneath eyelids. "I was just enjoying being held by you." She said and grabbed his hand.

"Come on, let's get ready, you really don't want to be late the first day. They'll make you run forever." Xan said heaving himself out of bed.

"Yeah, yeah." Mar said.

"Bet you won't be saying that tonight." Xan said as he watched her walk towards the 'fresher.

By 0445 all the IPEC recruits were assembled in the lounge, sitting in groups at tables, some talking but most just sitting, still lost somewhere between sleep and full consciousness. Rydell and Xan put fifty credits down as to whether Makazu would vomit, or stop running first.

Supervisor Aylard strode into the room, and with hands on hips scanned the room. "Let's go." He barked. Xan and Davic were the first out of their seats. Xan wasn't going to let Davic do anything better than he could. Rydell lagged towards the back with Makazu and Klown. In the sea of broad shoulders and hairy chest Marnist and Olsaa found each other and ran side by side.

That was how every morning started, after the morning run, which got progressively longer the recruits would eat in the lounge, which would be followed by Physical training, mostly strength and speed conditioning. After the noon meal Xan, Rydell, and Davic were sent off to join a regular officer class, while all the others learned the fine points of close combat.

Eventually after six months the afternoon classes and drills gave way to specialist training. All of the members of the group would head off to be taught by the best the Empire had to offer in their respective fields. For secrecy Xan was not allowed to know the name of his sniper instructor. A middle aged man with hard eyes and sharp features.

Noo-gin was assigned to an instructor that he already outclassed. The slicing room was perfect sterile white, dominated by computer consoles and sliceing equipment, complete with the most current encrypt/decrypt machines.

No one knew where Davic went; all they knew was that they didn't want to be standing next to him when the light fights started. Havoc Davic had been his name since the first day of weapons training. While waiting his turn on the range he triggered a burst of E-11 fire that almost took off his foot, and Rydell's arm.

Supervisor Aylard spun around. "All weapons are to be on 'safe' unless it's your turn on the range!" He bellowed. "For disregard of regulations Major, you a confined to quarters for a week. Now give me fifty push up."

"Stang." Davic muttered.

"That's an other twentyfive! No swearin' in here!"

Supervisor Aylard's knocking Davic back to real space was what everybody had wanted to see, if not do themselves. The problem was that Davic would eventually take it out on them.

•••

"So what do you and Private Kinkla do in your quarters after hours?" Davic asked one morning on the run.

"What do you meen?"

"You two seem to spend a lot of time together, almost as if you two were involved with each other."

"You know I could say the same thing about you and your roommate." Xan ducked a low branch. "But then again you're only his roommate."

"Inter unit relationships are strictly forbidden, and you know it. If you don't curtail this then I'll have you both thrown out of my unit. I can't believe they even let women into this unit, my unit."

"I'd trust her in a fight before you." Xan shot back lowly.

"This will not be. . ."

"You're doin' an awful lot of talking Cadet Davic. I must not be going fast enough for ya." Aylard barked our before picking up the pace.

Xan shot a laserbolt glance at Davic before matching the Supervisors speed.

•••

That night after Mar turned in Xan went down to the lounge and plopped himself down next to Rydell at a small table. A waiter droid trundled up and Xan ordered a Lomin Ale, the selection being very limited in the lounges bar.

"So, where's the scog?"

"Huh, Mar? She's back in the room, probably asleep." Xan answered. Xan looked down at the mug before taking a swig and looking at Rydell. "Do you think me and Mar are being to open about our relationship?"

Rydell thought a second before answering. "I don't know." He shrugged. "You guys do spend a lot of time together, although what you two do behind sealed doors is up to you." Then it clicked. "Why do you ask?"

"Havoc started giving me a hard time about today on our run. Threatened to have us split up, you know. . ."

"Normal Davic Bantha crap. Don't worry Xan, you know he talks big, but it would have to go through Aylard first, and you're too good and to involved to get kicked out now."

"I know, but still."

"Listen, you have to make the choice. This is something you have to talk to Mar about, not me." Rydell said.

"Yeah, you're right. So let me buy you a drink for all this sage advice." Xan said sarcastically.

"Besides Xan, there's always Haara."

"We've been over this. . ."

•••

Mar woke up when Xan came back in and turned on the light. Through the half awake haze she watched him undress, and then sit on the end of the bed for a few minutes. He was gorgeous, dark hair, clear skin, muscles stretched over his skinny frame. Her Xan, all hers

"Come to bed Xan."

"Yeah, alright." He answered in a half hearted tone of voice.

Mar grasped as much of him as she could, and hugged. "Good night Xan, I love you."

"I love you too."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

He'd done it, not because he'd wanted to, but because it was best for the both of them. Davic would have pushed the issue until there was no other way out. Mar seemed to understand, she only cried a little. Xan knew she wasn't mad, she couldn't be mad at him.

Now they were coming out of the simulator, a run that bore and almost exact profile to the one Xan, Rydell and Mar had run for the Rebels when the convoy was jumped by a Star Destroyer. Davic had thrown a fit over the comm frequencies, when Rydell had ordered the rest of the squadron to withdraw while his and Xan's Blastboat went after the Star Destroyer. All the crews withdrew as Rydell had ordered, showing who they would really listen to when their lives were on the line.

"Security! Security!" Davic howled. "I want both these crews thrown in the stockade!" He stalked over pointing a skinny finger at Rydell and Xan. "I want them brought up on charges. Mutiny, disobeying a direct order, undermining the authority of a superior officer. . ."

"Enough!" Aylard boomed, cutting Davic's tirade short. "You're over stepping your bounds Major!" The Colonel placed himself between Davic and Xan and Rydell. "There will be no charges, and no discipline. Captain Artell and Lieutenant Hodgins acted within their authority, and kept your group alive. Now, Major, they'll sit out, and you'll run the sim again with the computer taking the place of the two missing Blastboats."

"Yes, sir." Davic saluted, and returned to his simulator dome.

"You boys really get on his bad side." Aylard chuckled.

"Better on his bad side than dead, sir." Rydell said. They all watched and laughed as Davic's nice parade ground flying got his Blastboat, and all but one of the other turned into floating space junk.

"Supervisor Aylard, why is Davic in command?" Rydell asked.

The Supervisor shrugged, "I don't know, but I bet he doesn't make it through the first engagement. You boys probably want to be well clear of him tonight. You have my permission to leave base tonight."

"Thank you, sir." The eight saluted and left the simulator complex before Davic could get them.

•••

Xan was cold, the ground was hard, his blasters were almost out of power, and he'd spent the night being shot at by Stormtroopers. By every right he should have been miserable, but he wasn't, he felt great as shafts of Caridan sunlight found him at the base of Carida's tall buildings.

All because he was holding Haara.

Rydell must have had something to do with it. It couldn't have been coincidence that Haara had managed to find them late at night. They were all together Xan, Rydell, Makazu, Vors, Noo-gin and his pregnant girlfriend. When the Stormies found them just after midnight they immediately started calling for Xander Parck to surrender.

There was no time to play games. Xan was the first to shoot back, and then everybody else started, except for the two women. Two Stormtroopers went down with the first volley of laser bolts. The Stormtroopers returned fire, but only with stun bolts, all the time calling for Xander Parck to surrender.

Xan had urged Haara to go with Noo-gin and his girlfriend, but she refused to leave Xan while he and the others laid down cover fire so Noo-gin could escape with his girlfriend and unborn child. They'd done what they could, but none of them could make Noo-gin's girlfriend stay low, and she caught a stun bolt in the stomach.

Seeing her crumpled on the ground sent Noo-gin into an uncontrollable rage. He fired his blaster until there were no more Stormtroopers left, and even then he kept shooting. Pulsing laser bolts into unbreathing chests. It amazed Xan, that even after they shot at the Stormtroopers, not once did they shoot back with their blasters set on kill.

Everyone looked at Rydell; he was the ranking officer, someone who they all knew could be trusted. Had Rydell not been there all eyes would have been on Xan. Rydell ordered them to split up, Xan wanted to go it alone, knowing that he was the target. Rydell and Makazu would go with Noo-gin to protect his unconscious girlfriend. Haara refused to let Xan go alone though.

It was no more than a half standard hour later when another patrol found them picking their way through the shadows of an ally. With almost no power left for his blaster Xan was going to surrender when Haara grabbed his elbow and pulled him under a durasteel sheet.

Haara squeezed her eyes shut as Xan pulled her deeper into their hiding place, bodies pressed close together, hearts racing with heavy breath.

"We're not here. They can't see us. We're invisible." Haara chanted over and over again.

Boots scraped pavement, closer and closer until a Stormtrooper stood in front of them. We're done, Xan thought as Haara continued to chant. The twenty seconds the trooper stood there seemed to be an hour.

"They must have moved on." A voice crackled over a helmet comm. "Move out, we can't let them get to far ahead." The Stormtroopers moved on looking far Xan and Haara somewhere else.

"Whoo!" Xan sighed. "I thought we were dead."

"Me too." Haara said, reaching a hand around to touch the back of Xan's neck. As soon as she touched him a calming wave swept over his whole body radiating out from his neck, and Haara's hand.

"How did you do that?" Xan asked.

"What?"

"It's like you made the troopers go away, how, just by chanting a few words."

"I don't know. But it's like I could feel there minds. I don't know, it sounds stupid, but I think by me chanting like that it made them think we weren't here. I've always been able to do something like that."

"Huh. Wish I could do that." Surprisingly after all that had happened Xan fell to sleep in minutes, with Haara's hand still on his neck.

Now he was awake again, still holding Haara, her stomach moved against his hands as she breathed. Xan kissed the back of her neck softly.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up." Haara said, turning over and planting a kiss on Xan's lips. "What a night."

"Yeah, now let's get out of here."

The pair crawled out from under their ersatz shelter and headed for Haara's home, hand in hand. The whole time Xan thought about how it was wrong to jeopardize Haara, but the only thing that mattered was that it felt right. There was no other way to explain it, and he'd already given himself up to her.

"Haara," Xan said as they stood outside the door to her home, "You know I care about you. I care enough about you to be alone, because if we're together you'd spend many more nights like last night, and I don't want to see you get hurt. I just want you to know. . ."

"That you love me." She interrupted smiling. "And I want you to know that I love you enough to face Darth Vader himself to be with you." She threw her arms around him in a hug.

"As long as you understand." If she only knew hoe right she might be.

•••

There was a crowd waiting outside Noo-gin's room when Xan got back to the IPEC compound. Something had to be wrong.

"Nice of you to finally show up." Vors remarked dryly. "Noo-gin's locked himself in there and he won't come out."

"Why?" Xan asked, even though he probably didn't want to know.

"The stun bolt his girlfriend got hit with caused a miscarriage. She died a little while ago as a result." Olsaa responded before Xan even noticed she was there.

"Now he won't come out." Vors added. "We thought you might be able to talk to him."

Great! Xan thought, now he had somebody's blood, two somebody's blood on his conscience. Xan pounded on the door. "Noo-gin open up, it's Xan."

"No!" Came the muffled reply.

"Let me in now, or do I have to get Davic, and you can explain the whole thing to him." There was no reply, but the door opened and Noo-gin's head poked out. His face was sunken, with sullen gray eyes looking back at Xan.

"Only you." He said without looking around at the others. Xan looked back and shrugged before entering. Inside the room was just like any other in the IPEC compound, except for the hole in the wall by Noo-gin's bed. Apparently he had spliced into a computer conduit and was now running to his datapad.

"What's that?" Xan asked

"It's a computer conduit to the mainframe. I've been slicing into it since I got here."

"Don't get caught. I've invested too much time into making you a useful gunner to loose you now."

"I won't get caught. I never, erh, get caught."

"And I'm sorry, Darick, it's my fault you girlfriend died. The Stormies were after me."

"Why were they after you? Does it have something to do with this Thrawn?" Noo-gin offered.

"Who?" Xan wanted to say more, but the words caught in his throat.

"Thrawn, erh, he's commanding a force in the Unknown Regions. They're, erh, sending us there before we go anywhere else.

Xan froze; Thrawn and his father had been monitoring them. And allowing Xan to think they would get away. He had to think.

"When are we being sent to the Unknown Regions?"

"Erh, I don't know. As soon as we complete our training."

"Do you have our field training locations on that thing?"

"What do you think I've been doing, staring at Garrick Loran?"

"Show me." Xan ordered.

Noo-gin handed the datapad to Xan when the files were up. Xan copied them onto a datacard without looking.

"Thanks Noo-gin, we'll be out of here in few months." Xan stalked out of the room with the datacard in his pocket.

Xan motioned for Rydell to follow him into his room, and popped the card into his datapad.

"Where have you been?" Mar demanded.

"Not now Mar. We're in trouble." Xan snapped, as he pulled up the listing of instructors. He started with his instructor because he was most likely to have connections to Thrawn and his father. There was nothing of interest until Xan came to the list of high level kills. Number 10 was Artell, Senator from the Corbata system. Rydell had been right.

"What's going on Xan?" Rydell asked.

"First of all, you were right about your father, and my instructor was the one who did the job. My father and Thrawn have been monitoring us. You guys can just guess where we're headed." Xan looked at Rydell, rage was boiling just beneath the surface, now he knew who killed his father, and he could do something about it. "I know what you're thinking Rydell. Don't do it, not now. We have to find a way to get off this planet before you do anything. I have here the list of our field training locations. Let's get to work."

The three huddled around Xan's datapad, sifting through the field training locations and schedule. The desert was thrown out right away, as it was too long to wait, and the defenses around the equator were too tight. After exhausting all other possibilities, Xan and Rydell settled on Arctic Training. The planets defenses were thinner up near the North Pole, without any civilian population that could pin the group, and ships. Without the direct sightings they would be able to slip past or destroy any sentry ship. Because there was only a small garrison on the tundra maintained only for training purposes it would lower the risk of pursuit. Rydell had his own plan for taking care of anything that might be able to come after them. The only downside was that it was almost six months away. They were left hoping that Thrawn didn't request their services or find out before then.

"This is funny, isn't it?" Mar piped up. "The Empires spending all these credits to train us, and we're just going to turn it against them in a few months and because of the equipment they've handed us they won't be able to find us." Xan and Rydell chuckled.

"They'll never forget what I have planned for them." Rydell added.

"Remember, no one can know but us, that is until we do it."

"Who is going with us? Makazu."

"Of course." Xan paused, "I don't know, maybe Vors, Noo-gin, and Olsaa, she doesn't seem to like it here."

"Fine but Maijongh Dee's useless." Rydell said.

"And they can't find out until the day we're going. The more people know, the greater our chances of getting caught are."

"We know Xan; we've all been to the same classes." Mar admonished.

"Right, not another word until we're on the tundra." Xan said.

"Right." His companions responded. Just like before, no one could stop the three of them, and now they were just getting more dangerous by adding in the others. The Empire would never be able to stop them.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

_ She _was there. Sitting on Xan's lap across the room at a table with Rydell and a few others while Mar sat at the bar clutching a mug Lomin ale. She laughed, and joked and asked stupid questions about the missions and equipment, all things they could not really answer.

Xan seemed happy, but Mar knew better, he was to troubled to be actually happy with anybody but herself. It all had to be a ploy to keep Davic off his case, so that they could be together when they escaped the Academy. That's it; it would only be another few days before all of them would be off this planet, away from the Academy, the Imperials and most of all, away from Haara. Once off Carida Mar knew that Xan would come back to her, he had to.

She watched as the two got up and left the lounge, hand in hand. Mar squeezed her mug until it almost shattered in her hand. She hated Haara.

•••

Xan and Haara stood under the light in front of her home, Xan fumbled with the box in his pants pockets. He had to tell her something, but what?

"Haara, we're leaving for artic training in a couple of days. I don't know how long it's going to be, but the chances are that we're not coming back here, so I wanted to give you this." Xan produced the small box from his pocket.

"What is it?" Haara asked, as she opened the box.

"It's a Katalian moon pendant. It's supposed to let all these jerks here know that you're already taken, I can take it back if you don't like it."

"No Xan, I love it. But how is it supposed show other guys anything?"

"There's a whole myth that goes with it, but I don't want to bore you." Xan looked down at his feet.

"No come on Xan, I like being bored, why do you think I'm with you?" They both laughed.

"Fine, but you asked for it. Along time ago, on Katal, there was a man and a woman and they were very much in love. Every time they went out all the men looked at him with envy because he had the most beautiful girl in the entire system. So one time he goes away for a week or two, and all the other guys in the city start to peruse his girl. When he finally comes back theirs is this one guy who won't leave them alone and let them be happy. Anyway the two guys get into a fight and the second one ends up dead. So our hero here, is so disgusted at what he'd done he has a jeweler make a gold pendant with green stones around the edge to look like the moon. On the back he had inscribed, 'Like there is only one moon above Katal, you are the only women in my life.' As soon as she wore this all the time the other men left her alone."

"That's a good story. I hope all these Academy jerks have herd it." She laughed again. "Don't worry Xan, I'll wait for you."

"About that, we might not be coming back Haara. I want you to promise me something."

"Anything for you Xan."

"Promise me you'll find me on Katal if you don't hear from me in three weeks. But if I'm not on Katal in another three weeks don't wait for me."

"I can't promise that." She looked back at Xan, into his blue eyes that pleaded with her soul. "Alright, but you better be on Katal when I come to find you."

"I love you." Xan said before kissing her goodnight.

•••

Snow kicked up as the Blastboats topped another snow hill. They were flying in perfect formation that Davic loved so much. Xan was dozing in the co-pilots seat as Mar piloted the _Katalian_ _Hammer_ expertly. All Mar could see out the front view port was snow, and more snow, and the flurries of snow being kicked up from Davic's Blastboat. What a wonderful place to be. She reached over and punched Xan in the upper arm.

"Wake up, we're almost there."

Xan flipped back his helmet so it no longer covered his eyes. "What's the temp Noo-gin?" He asked, swinging his legs off the command console.

"Negative twenty-five." Noo-gins answered.

"Krif, beach weather." Xan scoffed. "Look, over there Mar, that's the base." Xan pointed.

"Yeah, do you think Havoc's seen it yet?"

"He hasn't moved yet, what do you think?" Xan asked.

"Blind and incompetent. He's going to be dead on the first operation." Mar answered.

It only took Davic another five standard minutes to find the outpost, and a half standard hour after they landed, they were all being briefed on the training exercise. They would fly the Blastboats within a kilometer of the target. Then they would proceed on foot across the tundra, observe, and then infiltrate a mock compound that had been setup. The whole drill was supposed to run four days, with the whole IPEC group spending three nights on the tundra.

The next morning the IPEC trainees were awake before the sun broke over the snow fields, and immediately started to get ready for the days ahead. They moved with the lack of enthusiasm that's brought on by cold and lack of sleep. That was all except for Olsaa, she always seemed to be happy, and awake, but that could have been a side affect of the four cups of caf she had already had.

"Good morning fellow IPECers." Olsaa piped up cheerily as she slapped Xan and Rydell on the back. The two exchanged glances, both wondering weather it was the right time to bring up the escape. In unison they both shook there heads no.

"It's too early." Rydell managed to croak out.

"And cold." Xan seconded.

"Hurry up people, let's move. We're supposed to be out of here in 15 standard minutes." Davic barked.

"I think your chrono's wrong Havoc, we still have at least a half and hour." Rydell shot at Davic.

"We leave when I say we leave, is that clear Captain?"

"What ever you say." Rydell tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, but he did a poor job of it.

"Fifteen minutes people." Davic, turned around and clapped his hands for emphasis.

"What I wouldn't give to get Havoc with one of these." Rydell triggered the forearm blade that all the IPEC personnel had been issued. He closed it, and then triggered it again, the blade making whoosh sound. "I love this thing." Rydell was like a little kid with a new toy.

"Yeah, well don't get to excited, I don't want to have to patch you up when you cut you're self with that thing." Olsaa admonished.

Rydell just shook it off, a joke. He wouldn't get hurt in such a stupid way. Just to spite Davic, Rydell and Xan did not show up to their ships until ten minutes after Davic had wanted them to be in the air.

It was noon when Davic keyed in the code for the landing cycle. They set down in perfect formation on an ice cliff. It had been Rydell's choice for a landing zone, it was a defensible position, within reasonable range of the target zone. Davic's location was further away and in a valley formed by two snow hills. The only reason that anybody could think of why Davic had chosen that spot was because it would keep the ships and the camp out of the wind.

After they covered the ships with camo nets, and piles of snow the members began to gear up. On Davic's orders the heated face masks were left behind, leaving all unhappy, and that was just the beginning of the problems that Davic was going to cause.

In single file, with Rydell at the head of the column they headed off across the tundra, Rydell cursing all the way. After a ten kilometer march through waste deep snow Davic finally stopped the line to setup a camp. Once the shelters were up the members gathered in groups around the portable heaters that they had been issued.

"I thought you said your landing zone was closer to the target then Havoc's." Mar shot at Rydell.

"It is, but with that Nerf herder leading the last part I think we ended up a long way off." Rydell whispered, and then turned to the datapad mounted on his left forearm. "Yep, you see this is where we are, and that's where we should be." He pointed to the two locations with the datapad stylus.

"We must be 6 clicks away form where we need to be." Xan chimed in. "All because Havoc can't read the lines on his datapad. Should we tell them now?"

"Why not?" Rydell cast a glance around to make sure Davic wasn't going to hear. "We're busting out of here. As soon as we get back to the outpost. The idea is that we all head out of here as part of the unit, because if we tried to make it individually we won't be able to. The only reason we're putting this to you guys is because me and Xan had a hunch that none of you volunteered for this job."

"What if Davic finds out?" Makazu asked.

"If you don't open your fat Katalian mouth he won't." Vors shot back at him.

"Are you guys in or out?" Rydell said harshly. He looked around the group, Noo-gin, Makazu, Vors, Olsaa, Xan and Marnist. Nobody said no, they would all go together.

The wind was whipping across the snowfields the next morning when Mar woke up. Xan was already missing from their shelter, while Noo-gin and Vors continued to snore. No matter how good the Empire said these shelters were she had still been cold all night. When she poked her head out the door she saw Xan, Rydell, and Davic not to far away, they seemed to be the only ones awake, but there had to be a sentry or two somewhere. Something told her this was not the time to but into a conversation.

"Listen Havoc, we're at least two clicks off course. If you had followed the route that I'd laid out we'd be in sight of the target already." Rydell said in a low tone, not wanting to wake any of the others.

"I followed the route just like you laid it out. You navigation is wrong Captain."

"No, it's not Havoc. My navigation is never wrong. Maybe you took a bad compass reading. You should have your eyes checked." Davic's face went even redder at being called Havoc twice. Rydell knew that it made him mad.

"Well then we have two option gentlemen. We can try and cut back the way you say, or we can loop around and hit them from the opposite direction. They won't be expecting that."

"You have to be kidding me Major." Xan said. His father had engrained into him at a very young age that he should always address superiors with respect, regardless of whether they deserved it or not. "They're not expecting us anyway. It doesn't matter which direction we come from. Besides, if we hook around and attack them from the opposite direction that puts the target between us and our ships. I'm sure I don't have to explain to you why that doesn't make sense." Address superiors with respect, but insolent criticism was not out of the question.

"We're going to come at them from the opposite direction."

"Havoc, do realize how much longer that will take? That's at least another day's travel time, and it makes it harder for us to get back to the ships if something goes wrong."

"Those are my orders, get ready." Davic turned and walked back to his shelter.

"My face is freezing." Xan said wiping icicles form his eyebrows. "Enough of this, I'm putting on the face shield."

"Yeah, me too." Rydell seconded. And both began to put them on. "Havoc's going to have a fit when he sees us." Rydell said, his voice slightly muffled under the cloth shroud.

"It's too cold to care." Xan said.

After a breakfast of rations the group was assembled and ready to move out. Instead of leading the group as he had done the day before Davic put Marnist at the head of the column, so that any blame could be placed on the young women if the navigation was off. This enraged Xan, Mar was the smallest person in the unit, and the waste deep snow was almost up to her chest. It was just Davic wielding his power to make someone suffer.

By noon, Makazu had assumed the lead, and they could see the target compound just before nightfall. Xan was posted on sentry for the night, as well as surveillance on the compound. Xan thought it was cold during the day, but the temperature plummeted even further after the sun went down. The IPEC personnel had been outfitted with a climate control system similar to that of the Stormtroopers with some of the body armor. Even with this heated body glove on Xan had trouble feeling and moving his fingers.

Nothing happened in the compound as Xan watched. He was eventually relieved by Makazu around midnight. The next morning Xan woke up to Mar shaking him.

"Come on. You've already missed the days briefing, and Davic is determined to start the operation even if we're not ready."

"What? That's suicide. They need my cover, especially on the approach." Xan jumped out of his sleeping bag, and immediately regretted it as the cold air assaulted his skin. He was ready in a few minutes, and he and Mar began to brake down the shelter as the others proceeded towards the compound.

"Bantha for brains is leaving without our cover."

"Yeah, well you did some good surveillance last night, right?" Mar asked.

Xan shrugged. "I did what I could, but it was hard to see with the wind whipping up the snow."

"Hey, Xan? Where are you?" Rydell's voice crackled over earpiece in Xan's helmet.

"Still breaking down the shelter. Have Davic hold the column 'till I'm in position. We're just about done here."

"He's not going to listen to me. You know that."

"Well then have Mak sprain an ankle or something. Just slow down or we're all going to look like a bunch of nerf herders. And you know none of it will get pinned on Davic." Xan said back. "Are we on a private frequency?"

"No, you're not Lieutenant Hodgins." It was Davic. "Enough of this chatter, they'll be able to pick it up. If you're not in position in two minutes we're moving without you."

"I'll be there, you can bet your skin on that, sir." Xan switched off the mic and turned to Mar. "Finish with the shelter, I'm going to take up position. Don't want to give Davic another reason not to like me."

"He'll invent one, you know that."

"Yeah, I know." Xan said picking up his snipers blasters and heading for the hill overlooking the target. Xan realized as he overlooked the area that anyone with a pair of eyes could see the twenty-two IPEC members moving into position. The target was a small compound set up to resemble a Rebel outpost that the IPEC group might be called on to eliminate. This one was crewed by expendable droids, and the trainees would be firing full power rounds while the droids only fired stinger shots. Their wasn't even any reasonable cover for the approaching IPEC soldiers. Davic was useless.

Xan sighted one of the droids as Mar flopped down in snow next to him. The droids head moved back and forth scanning the from a tower.

"Stay low guys. Those droids are scanning." Xan said. As the group sniper and spotter he was supposed to give the attack team information that would help them stay in cover and protect them longer. All but one of the white clad warriors got as low as they could, that one had to be Davic. "Major, did you hear me? Those droids are scanning for ya."

"I herd you Hodgins." Davic shot back. "I know what I'm doing down here. Just keep us covered."

Xan looked to Mar in disbelief, and shrugged. "Alright, it's your neck." Xan brought the sniper blaster back to his shoulder. It was the heaviest weapon in his personal arsenal supplied by the Empire, it was the only weapon rated to work in the extreme cold of the tundra. The other four were still aboard his Blastboat in the weapons locker. He brought the stylus out from his datapad and scribbled a message. _Bet you five creds that Davic gets it first_. He sent the message to Rydell, who sent back an affirmative.

Under no circumstances was Xan supposed to fire first unless he was ordered to, and Davic was never going to give that order. Not that it was going to matter much longer anyway. The stinger bolts were not capable of killing anyone, but that did not mean that Xan was going to sit back and let Davic make targets of his friends down there. He began to push some of the snow in front of him to create some form of cover.

"What are you doing?" Mar asked. "They can't see us."

"Not now, but I'm going to make us a target so they don't have to get shot at. Send a message to Rydell's datapad, telling him that when I open fire to rush the compound." Xan continued to push the snow around as Mar put out the message. He checked the power level and setting on his sniper blaster and brought it to his shoulder.

Xan focused the electronic crosshairs and the head of one of the droids. He magnified the image, bringing the target artificially closer. "I'm going to need the positions of all the enemy right away. We're gonna make us such an obvious target that they'll have to shoot at us."

"Are you insane?" Mar looked back at Xan quizzically.

"They can't reach us, and they aren't programmed to be able to calculate a shot for this range anyway. We're safe." Xan assured his smaller companion. Xan returned his attention to the scope once more. There was the closest droid again, and slowly Xan began to tighten his finger on the firing stud. A quick squeeze and the first bolt was away, it seared its way through the droids head, frying circuitry as it went. They droid crumpled to the platform, so much useless scrap metal. Xan didn't hesitate; he found an other target and took that one out. By now Davic realized what was happening.

"Hodgins, what are you doing? Cease firing now! That's an order. I'll have you brought up on charges for disobeying a standing order!" Davic continued to rant, but Xan just ignored him, dropping his eyes from the sight long enough to see that Davic was the only one not moving forward.

"Quick Xan. In the guard tower far right." Mar said.

Xan moved quickly, and felled the droid there.

"Rydell? How is it going down there?" Xan said as he sighted an other droid.

"Yeah, just perfect. Keep them distracted until we're inside the perimeter." Rydell said.

"Got ya. Hey, can you shut up Davic?"

"Short of shooting him? No."

"Alright." Xan pulled the trigger again, dispatching an other droid.

They were to the fence now. Rydell was at the front, and by now Davic was on the comm yelling at Rydell too. He was still well back of the rest of the group. All the helmets carried recorders so that the Supervisor could watch how they had performed, and tear apart every place where they had gone wrong. The charges were set and they all backed off and opened fire on the droids in the compound. There was a flash and a section of the fence came down.

They were all inside in a matter of seconds as Xan continued to snipe the droids as fast as Mar could feed him targets. Rydell had set the charges in a handful of minutes, all while Xan covered him from the hill. Once they had all withdrawn to a safe distance from the compound Davic began to shout at Xan.

"Lieutenant Hodgins as soon as we get back to the base I'm having you Captain Artell and Technician Kinkla all brought up for court martial!"

"Listen Havoc!" Makazu interrupted. "If it weren't for the Lieutenant we would have been spotted long before we were close enough to do any damage."

"It would have worked. Now we all have to go back and explain to the Supervisor that we all were jeopardized by Xan's itchy trigger finger."

"Enough of this Davic!" Xan shouted. "Just put me up on charges, insubordination, reckless endangerment of the group, I don't care. You won't win. By doing what I did I would have saved your life and almost everybody else's in the unit because you were too stupid, and as soon as someone below you in rank offered a suggestion you removed it from your mind. Do what you will with me, but I did the right thing." Davic said nothing, he just stared at Xan.

"Form up and move out. Hodgins up front." Davic finally barked.

Xan struggled to lead the column across the tundra through waste deep snow with his heaviest blaster rifle. Two hours into the hike it began to snow, not just a flurry but a full on blizzard that Xan had to lead them through. Rydell and Xan both asked to stop and put up the shelters; pressing on through a blizzard was not going to get them anywhere accept lost or dead. Davic refused every time. At least the whole unit knew who was on their side.

The blizzard cleared when they were almost to the cliff that they had stashed the Blastboats on. It required them to climb a twenty meter vertical face of ice. Rydell was the first up. Davic had devised a way so that if they needed to retreat he would be the first one in line, but if they were withdrawing safely he would always be the last so that the Supervisor would think him a good leader. Aylard knew better. Xan let Mar go ahead of him, and he followed her, both of them helped Xan over the edge.

Rydell stayed to help the rest over the edge while Xan and Mar went to get the Blastboats ready to fly. After every member was up on the cliff Rydell checked and rechecked the synthrope for safety so it would show that he had been doing what he was supposed to. All the others headed straight for their ships as Davic climbed the ice wall. Rydell took off his helmet so that the holocams could not see what he was about to do.

He triggered the wrist blade and started a cut on the climbing line so that it would look like the line moving over the ice had caused it to fray and snap. It would all look nice and clean for the Supervisor, and the rest of the Imperial hierarchy. Rydell had something different in mind for the sniper instructor.

Davic was almost to the top of the cliff when Rydell put his helmet back on, and looked over the edge. The line was almost gone and as he watched the last few synthetic strands gave way, and Davic began his plummet to the tundra below. Rydell broke the news to the rest of the group, and those who did not know that Rydell and six others would soon be a long way from Carida were genuinely pleased that they would have a capable combat leader.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Supervisor Aylard had chalked up Davic's death as accidental, clearing all the other IPEC troopers of blame. He also pointed out that without Xan the operation probably would have been a failure. The holocam footage from all the helmet cams was missing when they got up on the cliff. Rydell had set off an EMP mine with all the helmets around it so that it fried the electronics for a little while, they had already been supplied new helmets while the old one were going being refurbished.

An hour after what was supposed to be lights out Xan and Mar went to the hangar to prep and tune the two Blastboats that would be making the run off Carida. Once that was done Xan set his sights on gathering parts for the _Nova Wolf_.

"Mar, give me hand over here. I want this sensor suit for the _Wolf_."

"What? Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm not going to be able to find anything like this in the private sector. Just be glad I don't want the sublights." Xan joked, as they began to disassemble the sensors from one of the other Blastboats. Rydell showed up around midnight and set the demolitions, the Empire was never going to forget what they were going to do. It was not until an hour before the artic sun rise that the rest of the group showed up, and that was when Rydell went off to find the sniper instructor.

Rydell made his way down the darkened corridors, only the perm lights were on. Nobody was awake accept for those who were going to escape. The sniper instructor's room was near the middle of the compound, towards the small cafeteria. He had to work fast, the compound personnel would be waking up in a few minutes, if he waited to long he would be caught. The door was easy enough to open, especially with all the high tech gear that had been supplied by the Empire, there wasn't a lock that they couldn't crack in all of the Empire. The door opened slowly, and as quietly as Rydell could.

The light was on, and the sniper instructor sat at the small desk. The room was as neat as could be expected from any lifelong Imperial agent. The instructor did not turn around until the door shut.

"What are you doing in here, and why are you in full gear?" The instructor asked as he spun around.

"I've come to kill you." Rydell said matter of factley.

"Why?"

"Revenge. You killed my father. Senator Artell, from the Corbata system."

"I knew you looked familiar." The instructor mused as he moved closer to Rydell. His hand rested on the blaster at his hip. "So exactly how do you plan on killing me?"

"Like this!" Rydell lunged foreword and triggered the wrist blade. The instructor drew his blaster but it was too late, the blade found its mark, right at the bridge of his nose, blood squirted on Rydell as the body collapsed to the floor.

•••

"Mar, set the scanners on passive. Noo-gin, give me a broad channel search on all Imperial emergency frequencies." Xan rifled off orders to his crew, they were all waiting on Rydell, and Xan's chrono showed that it was nearing the go time, regardless of weather Rydell was with them or not. "Mak, are you there?"

"Yeah, what's up Xan?"

Xan looked over at Makazu sitting in the copilot seats in the other Blastboat. "I'm gonna tell you what I just told my crew. Keep the scanners on passive mode, and monitor all Imperial emergency frequencies. And don't shoot until we're shot at first. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." Makazu said out of habit.

"Why didn't you give us that last part?" Mar asked.

"Because I know none of you are smart enough to shoot unless I tell you to." Xan smiled at her, and the other two chuckled from the rear. The Lieutenant checked the chrono on his wrist datapad, almost time to go. When he looked back up there was Rydell, trotting across the ferrocreate floor towards his Blastboat.

Even though the transparasteel was dark Xan could see Rydell as he sat down in the pilot's seat and strapped in.

"You ready to fly yet or this place going to blow up with us in it?" Xan chided.

"I'm ready when ever you are. Did you give them the orders yet?"

"What, the comm Silence we're currently breaking, or the one about the scanners being set on passive?"

"Both. Let's go, once we're in the air maintain strict comm Silence." Rydell looked over to Xan, who gave a thumbs up and turned off his microphone.

The repulsorlifts whined as Xan gave them more power, and followed Rydell. Neither ship used the sublight drives because it would risk detonating the explosives, not to mention it was against regulations, and they wanted it to look like a regular training flight until it was too late to stop them. The explosives would go off long before anybody noticed them anyway.

Xan gave the sublight drives power as the ship broke out into the early dawn tundra. The rising sun reflected gold and orange off the glazed snow. The main viewport darkened to dampen the affects, but it was still spectacular. A beautiful start to her new beginning with Xan, Mar thought. Xan kept pace with Rydell as he gradually increased speed. Neither of the crews saw it, two minutes later when the compound went up in flames, the hangar doors collapsed in, preventing any form of immediate pursuit, the only thing that could stop them was a Star Destroyer in high orbit.

"What's the emergency frequencies look like?" Xan asked, as he held formation off of Rydell's port rear quarter, knowing that Rydell was probably asking the same question.

Noo-gin was silent for a second before he answered. "Yep, there's the base's mayday. We should have a response any second." He paused. "The reply is coming from the Citadel; they'll probably relay that info to some support group."

"Yeah, well did they mention us?" Xan snapped. They were almost out of the atmosphere, they would be able to make the jump in a few seconds, they were almost safe.

"Nobodies noticed us yet." Noo-gin answered.

"If they notice us, you tell me immediately." Xan turned to Mar, "Have you logged in the jump coordinates yet?"

"I did it before you even thought of it." She said smugly and flashed a playful smile at Xan.

"IPEC one to IPEC two, do you copy?"

"Two here." Xan said, keying for the comm Again.

"Jump on my mark. Three. . .Two. . ." Xan's hands settled on the hyperdrive levers as Rydell counted backwards. "One." Xan hauled back on the hyperdrive levers, and saw a sight that he hadn't seen in months, the safety and security of hyperspace.

"Where we headed Xan?" Klown asked.

"I don't know." Xan shrugged. "Where we headed Mar, you put in the coordinates."

"Y'Toub system." She answered.

"You know what that means people?" Xan asked like some kind of hacked up comedian in a dank cantina.

"We're eatin' with the slugs tonight." Vors chimed in.

"What do you mean?" Mar asked.

"The Hutts, we're going to Nal Hutta." Xan supplied, knowing it would be an educational remark coming from him, instead of the biting tongue lashing from either of the others.

•••

The pair of ships screamed along through hyperspace for two hours. It's was a carefully planned move, Rydell knew that the Empire would not follow them to the Hutt's home system. They, or more precisely, Thrawn would send some sort covert agent or bounty hunter. Nothing they could not handle, as long as the group stayed together, their survival depended on it. Also on Nar Shadda Rydell could get connected with a local Black Sun Vigo that would be able to set them up with work, or a front for some sort of illegal activity.

They would be safe there for a while, longer than they would be almost anywhere else, except for maybe among the Rebellion. The whole thing depended on them staying together though. Alone they could be very dangerous, they had the best training the Empire could provide, but their strength lay in the fact that all seven of them were the most deadly people in the Empire. Staying together multiplied the deadliness seven fold, it just depended on all of them understanding that.

Rydell got up from the pilots seat a little while before reversion to real space, to use the refresher. When he opened the door what he thought was a body fell out onto the floor.

"What is this!" He shouted, and both Makazu and Olsaa looked back at him. "I thought I told you two he wasn't supposed to come." Rydell yelled when he realized that the body on the floor was still alive, and it was Mahjong Dee, the one person from either crew that they had wanted to leave behind.

"You can't fly this ship without me." Mahjong stuttered as he got his feet underneath himself again. "You need me to keep this thing in the air."

"What? We're not doing good enough right now? How did you know that something was going on?" Rydell demanded. He was very tempted to just trigger his wrist blade and be done with the whole thing, but then he would have to clean up the blood stain.

"Well, I fig'ered when you came and got Olsaa in the middle of the night that something was up. So I followed you, and stowed away aboard the ship when you were all getting it prepped. It's a good thing I did, cause there isn't a technician among you."

That made a whole lot of sense. Xan and Mar were more than qualified to tear down rebuild, refurbish, and customize any piece of equipment on either ship, and Rydell knew his way around a hydrospanner as well, they didn't need him, and he really believed that they did. Like it or not, Rydell was stuck with him for the time being.

"Do you have any of your gear?" Rydell barked, not at all happy with what the situation.

"I brought it all, can't believe you guys didn't notice it." Dee said smugly, as if he were better than any of the others.

"Good, maybe I can make some use of you." Rydell knocked him against the bulkhead as a show of power.

"Rydell, two minutes till reversion to real space." Olsaa called from the cockpit.

"I should really just space you right now." Rydell growled.

•••

Xan was lying in his bunk, waiting for Rydell to come back from his meeting with his Black Sun contact. It was not safe for them to go parading around on Nar Shadda in Imperial uniform, they would become targets in seconds. Even going out in the uniform cloak pulled over his head Rydell was still running an immense risk of being gunned down on the street. Marnist paced back and forth from the cockpit to the rear bulkhead like a caged rancor.

"Would you stop pacing Mar? You're making me nervous." Xan said. She spun on her heels to face him.

"I'm going insane Xan. I've got to get out of here and do something soon!"

"Not till dark. We smack of Imperial, any right minded bounty hunter or smuggler will vape us on sight. When it's dark we'll be safe, not to mention that I'm a target for any bounty hunter out there on my own."

"Urrr!" She slammed her fist into the bulkhead.

"You're going to bust your knuckles doing that." Xan warned. "And if you do that it makes it hard to fire a blaster."

"I don't care Xan, I gotta do something!"

"Fine let's grab a ball and go toss it around in the hangar." Xan offered.

"We don't have a ball Lieutenant." Vors said, matter of factley.

"Alright then. A hydrospanner." Xan said, and began to rummage around in the tool kit.

"Are you serious? A hydrospanner?" Mar looked on in disbelief.

"You want something to do. So let's go."

When Rydell got back to the hangar he saw both crews outside the ships, apparently playing keep away from Mahjong Dee with a hydrospanner. He chuckled to himself and continued on. The hangar was crowded with many other beings, some of them were watching the Imperials play their stupid game. Great, the whole moon will know in a couple of hours. Oh well, they'd be able to fend for themselves as long as they all stayed together, that is except Mahjong Dee, he had to go.

The contact had set Rydell up with an audience with the local Vigo that night. They would find out what the Vigo was going to have them do, probably set them up with a smuggling ring, or something along those lines. Nothing to intricate, but it would hold them over for awhile, until they could get back to Katal. In a few hours he and Xan would be sitting with the Vigo.

The room was dark. The Vigo sat behind a desk cobbled together out of starship parts and shipping crates. The Vigo was a large man, with small cunning eyes, that were constantly darting from Xan to Rydell and then to his two Trandoshan guards. Even though it was Black Sun the furnishings were less than standard with Rydell and Xan sitting on packing crates that had been over turned, and the complete lack of scanners in the room, not to mention the ancient computer terminal that Noo-gin would laugh at. The two sat still and quiet as the Vigo talked over his intercom with what sounded like a Rodian trying to speak Basic.

"Why hasn't he been taken out yet? You're off the job!" The Vigo punched the com button before the other had any time to protest. "Stupid Greenies. Can't trust them to do anything. Now to your business."

Xan and Rydell exchanged glances, both tracking on the same target.

"My contact tell me you and your group is looking for work, since you're already part of the organization it shouldn't be to hard to put you two someplace, but the others," He shook his head, and looked down at the datapad sitting atop his derelict desk. "I don't know, that's a lot of people, and I don't have an other ship lying around to throw at you guys. I'll probably send you back to your shipping front on Katal, do some gun running, smuggling, the sort of thing you were doing before."

"How about a contract." Rydell interjected.

"What, you want this in writing?"

"No, a bounty. It sounds like you need some help killing someone. We can do it."

"You may have been at the Academy, but you're leagues away from dealing with who I need killed. I recognize those badges, and that unit anachronim. You boys are the explorers, not soldiers." He looked at them with slanted eyes.

"That's what the Empire wanted everybody to believe so they could get us past the Rebels. We were trained in the latest in Imperial infiltration, surveillance, combat, and assassination. We can do whatever you need done."

The Vigo stroked his stubble covered chin, and looked at them contemplatively. "Can you now? Look at this file." He handed a datapad over his desk to Rydell. Rydell skimmed through the file like anything else he ever read. A heavily defended underworld kingpin who liked to parooze around in the Corellian Sector with armed guards. He ran a spice smuggling cartel that was draining Black Sun's local profit margin.

"We've tried ten different bounty hunters. They all run into the same problem. Even if they get close enough to kill him their to preoccupied with his guards shooting at them that they can never get the kill shot. We've wounded him, five or six time."

"You just need better bounty hunters." Rydell scoffed. "We can do this without a problem. We just need to know where he's going to when."

"It's all there in the file." The Vigo said. "It's a fifty thousand credit job, with and extra thousand for everyone of his underlings you take out."

"Sweet deal." Xan offered.

"Yeah, well when bounty hunters are getting carved up you have to keep making the deal look better. If your crew can pull this off I can promise you more than that." The Vigo said slyly.

"I guess we'll see you tomorrow." Rydell answered.

"Your cocky, I think I like your friend better." The Vigo said to Rydell.

"Just hope he likes you. He's the best sniper in the galaxy. Kill ya before you even know he's there."

The two walked out of the office. "I don't like him." Xan said under his breath.

"Don't kill him. He's going to make us rich." Rydell laughed.

"Aw, do I have to?" Xan whined jokingly.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Admiral Parck walked into the Grand Admirals chambers aboard the _Admonitor_. A holo was playing in front of the Grand Admiral; it appeared to be some sort of training exercise in the snow. The soldiers looked vaguely imperial, but not so much that Parck could positively identify them.

"Reporting as ordered, sir." Parck saluted, and waited for the return from his superior.

"Do you know why I've called you here?" Thrawn asked in his smooth modulated voice.

"I can only assume it has something to do with that holo you're watching, sir."

"It does indeed." The Grand Admiral paused. "These are the holographs taken by a probe droid watching your sons IPEC group during artic training." The holo froze before jumping to a different place. "Watch."

Admiral Parck watched as the group advanced across the open snowfield. "Who is in command, sir?"

"A Major Davic."

"He's the one that is not supposed to last long in combat, right?"

"Yes Admiral, and you can see why. If it hadn't been for your son the operation would have been a disaster." Thrawn let the Admiral watch the holo, he noted the smile tugging at the corner of the human's mouth as he watched his son, now he had to break that. "Admiral. This is the last training that your son and a number of others were involved in before they deserted the Academy." The Admiral looked back, stunned at what he had just been told.

"Deserted? How?"

"Apparently they stole two of the Blastboats that had been assigned to the squadron. They planted explosive through out the hangar complex so there would be no pursuit. It was a very thorough job, had it not been against the Empire I'd say you should be proud of your son."

"Who else?"

"Rydell Artell, Marnist Kinkla, Dim-Ilek-Vors, Darick Noo-gin, Olsaa, Makazu, and Mahjong Dee. There are no reports on where they have headed, but I believe they will eventually return to Katal, since it is the residence of half those who left. We will have troops waiting when they return."

"No, sir. Respectfully, sir I appreciate what you have been trying to do so that I can have my son here with us, but we've already sent troops, we had them assigned to a unit that was going to be sent under your command. Apparently my son does not wish to join us. He has made his decision, and I've made mine."

"As you wish Admiral, he would have been quite an asset. They all would have been."

Four sets of foot steps echoed off the ferrocrete walls as Xan and Marnist returned to their Blastboat after surveillance on the targets route. The Imperial insignias had been painted over in black, to hide that they had been in the Imperial army. They had kept the IPEC insignias, it was sort of how they still knew who they were.

The intelligence that the Black Sun operatives had gathered was right on target. Rydell had sent Xan and Mar out to check it, and the target appeared right when they should have. Xan had read the report, Rydell was not exactly the most enthusiastic reader, and he had given the datacard right over to Xan.

The hatch sealed behind Xan and Mar, Rydell was in their Blastboat with his feet up on the command console. He dropped them down to the deck and stood up. Everybody else was still aboard the ships, because there was not enough civilian gear to go around.

"Hey, keep your feet off my console you barbarian." Xan mocked.

"What was that Lieutenant Hodgins? I'm your superior officer and you will address me as such." Rydell did a fair approximation of Davic, and the others laughed. It had become a way to pass the time to make fun of the way Davic talked and ranted about regulations.

"Is that dust on your rank cylinder?" Xan countered in his own version of Davic. "How do you expect to kill the Rebels with dust on your rank cylinders?" More laughs echoed through the small interior of the ship.

"What have you got buddy?" Rydell finally asked.

"They showed up right when they were supposed to. There's a point when their passage takes them into a narrow gap between two buildings." Xan brought up the pictures on his forearm datapad. "I think if you plant some explosives on both sides we can do some heavy damage."

"Can you hit the target, what was the speed?"

"About thirty kilometers and hour on approach to the gap, but the pilot cut his speed in half to negotiate the gap. There's an excellent view of the target, definitely a one shot kill, and then I could take down the pilot, the deadmans switch should engage and kill the vehicles momentum."

"Good, I'll take a team tonight and set the charges. We'll setup crossfires and you'll take the same position, when I give the go, you'll take out the target. Once he's down I blast the charges and we open fire. Mak, Klown, you two just volunteered to go tonight." They let out disappointed groans, but said nothing in the ways of real complaints. "Say, Xan, what's in those crates anyway?"

"The sensor suit off of one of the other Blastboats. Me and Mar took it before we left. I figured it would be a shame to let you blow 'em all up when the _Wolf_ needs a sensor pack, and there's not going to be much better out there." Xan winked at his friend.

Xan and Mar were hunkered down on the roof of a building waiting for the target to approach. The whole team was in position, and Rydell was ready to blow the charges. They had setup so that everybody would have a clear shot at the hoversled that would be coming by. Xan checked the power level again, even though he knew it was fully charged, he set the selector for maximum power.

"Do you see them yet?" Rydell's voice came through the comm Xan checked his chrono.

"Yep, just spotted them." It was Mar. "Maybe an other two minutes." She answered Rydell.

"Alright everybody, get ready and shoot straight."

"I bet Xan can't get a head shot on the target." Makazu said.

"How much?" Xan shot back.

"Five credits."

"Not to serious, are ya?" Mar shot at him.

"Fine, ten." Makazu offered.

"Sounds good to me. You're on." Xan answered.

The two minutes ticked by slowly, until the hoversled was on approach to the gap. Xan brought his snipers weapon to his shoulder, and fixed the electronic crosshairs on the target. A little adjustment and it was as if Xan was standing next to the man. He was plump, and had not shaved in a day or two. A cigara burned at the corner of his mouth, and scars tracked along his cheek to his ear. Vaping someone like this was different from doing it all the other times Xan had been in a light fight. He never knew his target as he knew this man. Looking through the scope without laser bolts flashing around him gave him time to contemplate what he was about to do, all the thoughts quickly vanished when he remembered that this was some glittbitting underworld kingpin. What he was doing was a more hands on version of what the Empire had had his father doing.

"You got him Xan?" Mar asked.

"Dead center." Xan answered without shifting his gaze from the scope. "Easiest ten credits I ever made."

"Hold. . . Hold. . .Hold. . .Fire!" Mar exclaimed when the hoversled was in position to take the brunt of the charges blasts.

Xan clamped down in the firing stud, and the auburn energy bolt sizzled through the air. The crime lord's head snapped back as the bolt caught him, and tore away a piece of his skull.

"You owe me ten credits Mak." Xan called as he tracked the pilot who didn't seem to realize what had just happened. An other clamp on the firing stud and he was done for. Once the pilot was down Rydell detonated the explosives cascading shrapnel on the other men on the hoversled. By now the bodyguards had opened fire, spraying bolts in any direction because they had no idea where the shots had come from.

"Fire!" It was Rydell, and all at once all of the IPEC weapons came to bare on the hoversled. Bolts sparked off the sled minor hull plating and found targets whereever they went. With no one at the controls the sled had stopped moving and became one big target that nobody could miss.

"Look what I did for you Mak, even you can get a kill or two now." Xan jibed his compatriot as was their usual fashion.

"Even so I can get some kills? I'll show you." Came the reply. Mak plucked a grenade off his belt and hurled it at the hoversled, it detonated after landing on the generator, which caused and even bigger explosion, sending shrapnel out in a sphere the shattered windows on the surrounding buildings. There was a scream over the comm and then silence as the hoversled spiraled down into the depths of little Coruscant.

"Report." Rydell snapped, and everybody reported no damage except for Mahjong Dee, who didn't respond. "Alright everybody, move out. We're leaving in two hours, go back to the hangar and prep the ships, Xan and I will be back an hour."

The door into the Vigo's office opened, and the guard motioned Rydell and Xan in. They had given him the holos from the operation to review. Doubtless they had been sent through filters to authenticate what they showed. The Vigo looked pleased.

"Please, be seated." The Vigo motioned them into the chairs that were opposite his desk. "I've taken the liberty if having you holo footage authenticated. Very good shooting Lieutenant, and Captain, expert work with the demolitions. I have your payment in cash. And you'll be pleased to know that I've recommended you two to head up a recently opened position on Katal, that is your home planet, right?"

"Yes it is. What's the position?" Rydell asked, narrowing his eyes.

"We recently had to liquidate one of the locals running a smuggling operation. He attracted to much Imperial attention, and you boys already know what that does for business. Either way, I've received word that you have been recommended for the position Captain Artell. Of course it is in your best interest to take the position."

"Tell me more." Rydell said thoughtfully.

"It's a straight out smuggling operation that's operating out of a legitimate shipping business for the front. You have the choice of who you smuggle for when, but you send a percentage of each run to the local Vigo. You will be competing with the others in the area, Black Sun and otherwise. We find this is the best way to maximize profits."

"Alright, we're in, provided you can assure jobs for my people."

"That is solely up to you Captain Artell."

"Alright then. Thank you for the money, we'll be on our way to Katal within the hour."

The shipping front was in fact the same one that Rydell had been working out of before they had all gone to the Academy. Everybody stayed on, after the huge profit of the first mission no one would be stupid enough to turn down sure credits in the bank. Rydell noticed the lack of protests from Xan, even though his friend was still against smuggling, there was no way he could pass up the money.

Xan swung the door open to the room he had been using at the Artell mansion; it was the closest thing that Xan had known to home for a very long time. He dropped his duffle bag at what he saw. Sitting in one of the chairs, with long legs crossed seductively was Haara, she looked more beautiful than ever. The Katalian moon pendant that Xan had given her rested just above her cleavage.

"I let myself in." She said, standing up to meet him. "I didn't know if you were ever going to show up." She said as she wrapped her arms around Xan in a hug. Xan squeezed her closer, glad to have someone else's warmth. "Where were you?"

"Shh." Xan held a finger against her lips, before kissing her. She pulled away after a moment.

"Where have you been?" She asked, her blue eyes trying to see into his soul.

How could he explain it to her? If she found out that he had killed people just to make money she would leave him, disappear back to Carida and Xan would never see her again. Since he'd lost his father Xan had done a good job of keeping the people he cared about around, but something told him she would leave if she knew.

"We took a little detour." Xan shrugged. Haara stared back at him, not mean, not glaring, but like she was trying to figure out just what that detour had been. Something told her Xan was scared, scared to loose her, and that it most definitely had something to do with his detour. Just more confusion for her, it was like she could sense what Xan was thinking, what he wanted to tell but could not for fear that he would loose her. Haara could not explain what she felt, and that scared her.

"You don't have to worry about loosing me." She offered and patted his cheek lovingly. "So tell me where you've been."

"It's really nothing special." He said. "You know, we just had to lay low for awhile so the Imps wouldn't find us."

"Alright Xan. Why don't we go get some food?"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

It was impossible she was there too. On Katal, how did she get to Katal? Mar's heart had dropped to her feet when she saw the older girl wrapped in Xan's IPEC dress jacket. She just couldn't win. Xan was supposed to be hers once they left Carida, and they returned to Katal only to find that she was waiting for them.

At least she was still Xan's co-pilot. Of course Xan would get to a point when he realized that having her around all the time was what he wanted. What could he possibly see in Haara? She was the complete opposite of Xan in every way, she couldn't handle a blaster let alone a quadgun, she didn't know a hatch release from a hyperdrive motivator, and she wasn't even from Katal. She still had a chance; she was going to win Xan somehow.

Of course the answer was really only a blaster bolt away. It always was.



"This place is worse off then when we left for the Academy." Rydell exclaimed. "It's like the Vigo wants us to fail." He flung his arms out and let them drop to his side in an expression of hopelessness.

"So where do we start." Makazu asked. The freight warehouse was almost void of life. There was not a being to be seen anywhere except for the IPEC group that had just shown up. Shipping crates were piled high, and there were no ships.

"Where do we start?" Rydell turned around and looked at Makazu dumbfounded. "What does it look like we do? We get this stuff delivered where it's supposed to be delivered and then we go after who ever it was that pushed the former owner out."

"What do we do when we find them?" Makazu asked again.

"What we were trained to do." Xan answered, knowing that Rydell was thinking the same thing.

"Alright, start checking these crates, and make sure we know where they need to go." Rydell pulled on Xan's elbow and pulled him aside. "Hey, I'm gonna go and round up a couple of good crews, you get the _Comet_ ready to fly cuz you're going to lead them while me and Noo-gin stay behind to slice into records of the other smuggling operations around here."

"Will they respect me?" Xan wondered. "We've always been taking orders from you or the brain-dead idiot back on Carida."

"I think most of them respect you more than me. They know you're mostly sane and won't put them into any more risk than they have to be." Rydell cocked a wry grin at Xan.

"What about these guys you're going to dig up in the cantinas?"

"They'll listen to you because if they don't they don't get paid."

"Who do you think shut this place down?" Xan asked, if only to confirm his suspicion.

"They're mostly Rebel supplies. This is broadcasting Imperial better than a Star Destroyer."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Are you seriously thinking of going after the garrison?"

"Your not?" Rydell answered like it was the only option open to them. "There's only about a hundred of them, we can do it."

"And I'm a skinny Hutt." Xan retorted.

"If we do it right we can get out without any casualties." Rydell said, looking back to his training from the Academy.

"You know our training was supposed to be used against smaller Rebel garrisons and noncivlized worlds where we stand a better chance with smaller numbers. Our training didn't include taking out Imperial garrisons with all the associated equipment. Not to mention the fact that we're not at full strength, we're not even at half strength."

"Yeah, but think about all the stuff we're going to come away with when we pull it off. They've got speeder bikes, and AT-STs AT-ATs. We can probably sell it to mercenaries or we can use it for ourselves, and I'm sure Noo-gin wants to get into the Imperial computers again." That was always the thing with Rydell it was never _if_ they could do it but _when_.

"Alright then. When do you want the first shipment out?"

"Tomorrow morning. We have to get on top of all this or we're going to loose a lot of customers. And that means a lot of credits, and loosing lots of creds means the Vigo won't be happy."

"Right." Xan answered. "Good luck getting a couple of crews together."

"I don't need luck." Rydell answered and turned for the door.



Haara felt around in the bed for where Xan was supposed to be, but he wasn't there. Once the sleepy haze had left her eyes she could see Xan standing silhouetted against the mirror. He usually wasn't up before she was.

"Where are you going Xan?" She asked voice groggy with sleep.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Xan apologized.

"You didn't." Haara said sitting up in bed. "So where are you going?"

"To work." And that was all he said. Haara could feel the tension lurking just below the surface of Xan's calm demeanor. Somehow it didn't seem like work was going to be simple today.

"Doing what?"

"The same thing I was doing before I met you. Moving freight."

Now that didn't fit. They'd met when Xan was at the Academy the first time. And when she'd first come to Katal he was working in a repair shop.

"Going anyplace good?" She asked as Xan clasped his belt, his belt holding two blaster pistols.

"No not really. Just the same old stuff." She could tell that Xan didn't want to talk about what he was doing with her, but she needed to know.

"Are you smuggling Xan?" She asked. Haara had no reason to believe Xan was smuggling, but that seemed like the only thing that could make him avoid the questions the way he was. It almost felt as if Xan had slapped her, or pushed her back down onto the bed, even though he hadn't moved from his spot two meters away, she knew she'd hit the mark.

"Yeah." He ground out reluctantly. "I knew you wouldn't like it, but it's what I have to do."

"No you don't." Haara answered all too quickly. "You could go to work at a repair shop again."

"And not make any money. There's no shop out there would hire me because I don't have the credentials from the Academy or any other place, hauling freight and smuggling is the only way I can make any money. That's who I am. You get all of me if you want me, but you don't get to pick and choose the parts that suite you best. You get the freight hauler, the smuggler, the bounty hunter, the mechanic. You take it all or you get nothing." Xan was facing her now. She could feel how it hurt him to say those things, and it told her just how much she cared about her.

"It's just that's its dangerous, and I don't want to loose you." Haara offered, and it was the truth.

"No, that's not it. You don't want me doing anything illegal. And it's not even wrong." Xan fired back. "Listen, I can't stay and argue this with you. I have to go."

"I'm sorry Xan." Haara said getting out of bed. "Have a safe trip." She enfolded him in a hug. "You'd better come back."

"I always come back."

Rydell was waiting in the warehouse when Xan and Marnist arrived in the _Comet_. There were four other ships in the yard being loaded with crates.

"Good morning. Nice of you two to finally show up." Rydell greeted.

"Lover boy here got into a fight with you know who." Mar spat out with contempt. "Apparently she has some moral reservations about smuggling."

"You didn't tell her what or who we're smuggling for, did you?" Rydell glared at him with narrow eyes.

"No of course not. Show me these pilots you gathered from the Cantinas." Xan said. What had happened had happened; all that mattered at the moment was the success of the mission.

"Right. Fordulo, Beneb, get over here." Rydell shouted. A Dug and a Duros came walking over. "This is Fordulo, expert pilot and smuggler." Rydell said indicating the Dug. Like all Dugs he was short with dark grayish skin. What struck Xan was what seemed to be a massive tattoo on the side of his head that tracked all the way down beneath his cloths. "And the same goes for Beneb." Rydell said. To Xan this Duros looked just like every other Duros he'd ever seen, even dressed in the same pilot's jumpsuit. "I also managed to locate a couple of ships. Makazu will be piloting one, and Vors and Olsaa will take the other. Good luck and get going." Rydell said. "Hey, Fordulo, where's that Verpine you spoke about?" Rydell questioned. The Dug shrugged. They were in hyperspace in a half a standard hour.



It seemed like Xan hadn't slept in a week, because it had been closer to five days of constant shipping. The only thing that saved him was having Mar for a co-pilot; he couldn't fathom how the solo pilots were able to stay awake. They probably had good piloting programs installed in their astromech droids.

The problem with the constant flying was that the lack of sleep was taxing on their patience. Xan rubbed his eyes and reflected on the situation as the _Comet_ hurtled through hyperspace. They were all so tired that if they were jumped by Imperials they would all be turbolaser fodder in a matter of seconds. The thought of death clouded Xan's emotions, not to mention that the lack of sleep was trying on every body's patience.

Mar was asleep in her bunk, while Xan tried to monitor the in flight systems. Every time he was about to dose off A5 trilled loudly to wake him up. Xan would have enough time to sleep when they were on the way back to Katal. Almost all of the supplies they were hauling were for the Rebellion, and it wasn't an issue weather or not the Imperials were going to attack, but when Xan and his band got caught in the crosshairs of a Star Destroyers turbolasers.

Like all the other drop offs before this one went off without a problem. And Xan was able to sleep for twelve hours as the Comet rocketed back towards Katal. He'd forgotten the datapack until it fell out of his jacket pocket.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Rydell had gathered what was left of the IPEC group and the other two smugglers in the dinning room at the Artell ranch. Unlike all the others Xan knew what Rydell was going to say. It was going to be the plans for the attack on the Imperial Garrison. Xan eyed the two aliens sitting at the other end of the table; they weren't IPEC material, not because they were nonhuman, but because they didn't have a fraction of the fraction of training that Xan, Rydell and the others had been through. Then on top of that Xan hadn't known them long enough to judge weather they could be trusted or not. Any tip off the Imperials got would wind up killing all of them. Xan took a sip of wine and let it all go away.

Rydell stood, cast a look around at his band of warriors, and paused. He looked just the way the Imperial Officer manual wanted him to, minus of course the uniform. "I suppose you all want to know why we're here?" He paused again. "Do any of you have any ideas?" He looked around the table once more, settling his eyes on Xan for an extra moment, to let Xan know he should be quiet.

"I bet it involves killing." Makazu offered. "Other smugglers even."

"Close, but no. We're going after the people who shut down our place before we got it. The Imperials." No one said anything, possibly to stunned at what Rydell was saying, or possibly realizing that they might not come back from this one. "Why so quiet all of the sudden?"

"I don't know, maybe because you're insane?" Olsaa shot out.

"No, this is the exact type of thing we were trained to do. Listen, the garrison is small, and we have all the capabilities to do it, and this is how. Xan and Mar will set up somewhere that provides a good view of the compound. The guard detail should be at a minimum because the Rebels aren't very active in this system. We setup in teams of two and take out the guards as quietly as we can. Preferably with the wrist blades."

"So you expect us to get close enough to a Stormtrooper so we can jam a vibro blade into his throat? What part of this will you be taking?" The Duros spoke up, at first he had appeared like any other Duros that Xan had seen, but after flying with him for a week Xan had begun to notice some things, namely the scar that tracked along the alien's cranium, and the fact that he was more aggressive than any other Duros.

"I'll be right up front." Rydell answered, focusing on the alien. "Once the guards are dispatched, we'll assemble at the main gate. One team will go to communications bunker, while the other will then neutralize the officers and other in the compound. If we do it right and they don't get off a reply we can play so we can collect the whole garrison's supplies for awhile at least."

That's Murder. The Dug spat out at Rydell.

"Killing Imperials isn't murder!" Noo-gin protested. "Destroying my homeworld was murder, and I plan on getting revenge."

"What do we do if they get off a distress signal?" Vors asked.

"We just blow everything up." Rydell answered with a shrug. "If we do enough damage to the compound they'd either have to setup a new one or they'll leave this place alone."

"I doubt it." Mar fired back.

"I'd also just like to say that this is a strictly volunteer mission, but anybody who takes part in it will get an equal share in the fortune selling the Imperial weaponry will bring. Not to mention a spot in my organization as long as you want one."

•••

Xan and Mar had been waiting for hours for the signal from Rydell. They were at extreme range as a result of there being no buildings near the Imperial compound, or any decent sized hills that would give a good view. Their role for all intents and purposes was as a security blanket incase an Imperial escaped the vibroblades, or stumbled unknowingly onto what was happening.

"Do you think we're even going to get to do anything?" Mar asked. She'd been quiet for neatly two hours.

"No." Xan answered. His snipers weapon sat against the ledge of the buildings roof. "If they do what they're supposed to we won't need to." Xan picked up his macrobinoculars and scanned the compound. There were a few guards, and that was it. He watched them for a while, and noticed that they all seemed partially distracted, not really paying attention to their duty as sentries. A result of having no real action for a long time, they'd become complacent, and too familiar with the surroundings.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Xan asked.

"Yeah, their lazy, and soon to be dead." Mar responded. "They shouldn't have a problem with those fools. Besides we all know the Outer Rim is the first stop for soldiers just out of the Academy."

"No different for us, huh?"

•••

Rydell crouched down behind the perimeter wall, Makazu was with him, both decked out in the IPEC combat uniform. Rydell checked his chrono one more time, then keyed for a transmission to Xan. "Heads up you two we're going in."

As quickly and quietly as they could Rydell and Makazu moved against the first pair of Stormtroopers, yanking their white helmeted heads back and slitting the Stromtrooper's throats. A soft gurgle accompanied the blood spurting from the trooper's necks. A clatter and a thud and the troopers were lifeless on the ground

Rydell and Makazu moved swiftly into the shadows on the other side of the entrance. The other IPEC members had done their jobs also, none had returned fire, and only one had yelled, but his commlinc was off, so there was no alert. When the rest of the team minus Xan and Marnist had gathered inside the compound, Rydell reminded them all of what was going to happen next.

"Alright, you four head to the Communications hut with me, while the others go around and blast the soldiers. Try to avoid damaging any of the equipment, because we'll have to repair it before we resell it. Move out."

The two groups quickly headed in opposite directions, Rydell and Makazu led two others to the communications hut the only part of the compound that would be manned at that hour of the night. Success hear was the most important, if Rydell and his squad moved quickly enough against the comm personnel they wouldn't be able to get off a distress signal, and that would allow the group to raid the compound for anything they could sell to the Rebels or any band of mercenaries or smugglers that could afford the price. Xan and Mar were already on the way their in the _Comet, _Rydell had ordered them out after the sentries had been disposed of.

The door to the comm hut opened without protest as Rydell slid his rank cylinder into the slot. Rydell was of course the first one into the small room full of communications devices. He moved rapidly to the nearest Imperial, and put a laser bolt through his head. The other didn't move right away, partially startled by the blood splattered on his face, and the sound of a blaster going off so close, he was halfway out of his chair with his blaster in a similar position when Rydell hit him in the bridge of the nose with the stock of his blaster carbine. There was the sudden sputter of blaster fire, as the others opened fire on the Imperials. It only lasted a handful of seconds; the unsuspecting Imperials were easy prey.

•••

"That went better than expected." Rydell offered, taking off his cloak in the lounge of the _Comet_. "There's an awful lot of supplies here. Do you think they were getting ready to move against smugglers around here?"

"That would be irony wouldn't it, hitting the Imps while they were gearing up to hit our competition." Xan offered with a chuckled. "It's more likely they were getting thing together as a precaution against Rebel activity in the area."

"What Rebel activity?" Rydell asked.

"Well, us and if they have a garrison here the Rebels are more likely to go someplace else than a planet or system where there's already an Imperial Garrison."

"Yeah, well I'm going to get in contact with the Rebels tomorrow morning,"

"Don't you mean today?" Xan asked, tapping the chrono on his wrist datapad.

"Fine, later today I'm getting in contact with the Rebels so we know where we can take this stuff. Is that the last of it Mak?"

"Yeah, thanks for the help." Makazu bit out sarcastically as he put down the last crate.

"Good let's get out of here, Xan." Rydell turned to his companion, who bowed his head slightly and headed for the cockpit.

•••

Xan had always liked the dark better than the daylight. The way it enfolded him, and made him feel safer, and the inexplicable closeness it brought to everything else around him. More importantly he liked the darkness and the nighttime because it made it easier for him to hide. Perhaps there'd been a time when he had like the day time, but all memories of that had been erased when it was no longer safe to be seen in the daytime.

The dark and the night were his domain now, his and the rest of the IPEC outcasts. Maybe the Imperial training had just seeped into his subconscious and made him feel artificially safer. Xan thought about it, but it didn't matter, he realized as a speeder drove by a kilometer away or so. Everything was so still at night, it was calmer.

It was silent when he picked up his sniper blaster, and supported it against the ledge of the roof, providing him cover and a steady arm to shoot with. Mar was hunkered down next to him as she always was. Xan knew there was only one other person he would trust as his spotter or copilot, and that was Rydell, and he was needed elsewhere in both cases. Mar lithely drummed her fingers on the foregrip of her BlasTech E-11. She and Xan shared a certain bond that sprang from all they had been through together; they both trusted the other with their life and knew the other could be counted on in a light fight.

Mar was there as a sort of protection for Xan. He would be trying to concentrate on the target, the kingpin of the second most productive smuggling operation in Kalin. Mar was there to protect Xan from being flanked, or snuck up on. The E-11 she was armed with also allowed for full autofire, unlike any of the sniper weapons that Xan had been issued. Even though Xan had those two blaster pistols. Marnist watched Xan as he took aim through the scope. He squinted his left eye, and went through the ritualistic process of adjusting the sight and ranging. He made one final adjustment and looked back up at Mar.

"You do know you're supposed to be keeping me safe, not watching me." Xan joked with her, both of them knowing that nothing was likely to happen to them. They had cover, they had surprise, and the speeder bike behind the air conditioning unit ensured that they would be a long way away by the time anybody realized that the shot had come from outside.

"Fine, Fine." Mar said and went back to looking around the area.

Xan made one more almost imperceptible adjustment on the scope before he fixed the electronic crosshairs on the target. It was a woman. She stood at the head of a table, drinking a glass of something, most likely alcoholic, and was making motions with her hands between steadying herself on the table. Xan didn't fire. He had the perfect shot, but he didn't fire. That was the problem with sniping; the sniper knew the target in a way that a regular foot soldier could never know his enemy.

"She's pretty." Mar said. Xan looked up and sure enough Mar had her set of macrobinoculars at her face. "Is that why you haven't shot her yet? Come on, it's getting cold out here."

Xan brought the weapon back to his shoulder, and gazed down the sight. He clamped down on the firing stud and closed his eyes at the same time.

"Hit." Mar called out, and the two got up and went back to the speederbike to go home.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Haara scowled at Xan across the room as he readjusted the blaster belt at his hip. She stood there with her arms crossed against her chest. Xan checked the power on his blasters, the whole time completely aware of Haara starring him down, trying to burn a hole through the protective shield that Xan had built around himself stronger than a Super Star Destroyers.

"Why are you still doing this?" She blurted out, in a strong voice.

"Doing what?" Xan asked, even though he knew.

"Smuggling, you know I don't like it when you do this?"

"Why? Are you that loyal to the Emperor and his New Order? All we're doing is bringing supplies to the Rebels, and when they finally beat the Empire we stand to gain a great deal."

"I'm not loyal to the Empire; I can't be loyal to anything that's costing thousands of beings their lives." Haara shot back.

"So what you're saying is that you don't support the Empire, but you also don't support the Rebels who are working to free the Nonhumans and the rest of the Galaxy from the unjust whims of one man and his cronies because people are going to die? Did you ever think that those beings are giving their lives so that we all can have a better future, and smuggling supplies is the way I'm going to help win that fight?" Haara lost the sternness of her gaze, and seemed to crumple to the bed. "I'm sorry." Xan offered, realizing that he'd probably been a little too forceful with his words.

"No, it's not that Xan, it's just that every time you go on one of these smuggling runs you can't tell me where you're going, or what you're hauling." She managed between sobs. "And, that every time you leave, might be the last time I see you." She was crying into her hands now. Xan sat down on the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"It's alright Haara." He soothed. "I always come back. And besides, me and Rydell and everybody else soaked up the best training the Empire had to offer, there isn't a single person or being out there who can deal with one of us, let alone all of us."

"Fine Xan. But you promise me this, when you get back from this one you'll marry me."

Xan sat silent for a moment, not sure what to say. It wasn't as if this was the first time the thought had come to Xan, but it wasn't expected. Deep in his subconscious there was that little niggling feeling that he and Haara were meant to be together, but until that moment they had never mentioned the idea of spending the rest of their lives with each other, however long or short they could be.

"Promise me." She said, looking up at Xan with tears streaming down her pail cheeks. "Promise me."

"I promise." Xan uttered and enfolded her in a hug.

•••

Down in the hangar bay of the Artell Ranch the freighters were prepped and waiting. The urgency that accompanied the last Rebel transmission resulted in Rydell having to push forward the departure time by two standard weeks, and the amount of supplies they were hauling caused Xan and Rydell to modify containers to attach to the ships in order to carry it all. The _Comet_ and the _Nova Wolf_, along with the other five freighters had been outfitted with the supply container outriggers that they had been able to brainstorm. It looked odd, and Xan knew it would kill the flying characteristics of the ship, and probably them too if they were jumped by Imperials, or a band of pirates. Rydell was in the cockpit of the _Comet_, because his Blastboat lacked even a fraction of the space of a freighter and they needed to move as much as they could as fast as they could. Xan and Mar would fly the _Nova_ _Wolf_ on her maiden run.

Xan dropped himself into the captain's chair in the _Wolf's_ cockpit, and instantly knew where all the controls were, not only because he had put them there, but because he had lifted the whole cockpit more or less intact from a scrapped YT-1300.

"Where have you been?" Rydell's voice crackled through the comm. "I was about to tell Mar that we were going to leave without you and that she should fly the _Wolf_."

"Just talking with Haara." Xan responded.

"Anything important?" Rydell asked.

"Nothing much, we're just getting married, that's all." There was silence over the comm as the weight of Xan's words slammed into Mar's chest. It was over, and she had lost, the only way to stop it now was to kill Haara. Mar knew before the thought could evolve into a plan that if she killed Haara there would be no way Xan would even talk to her again, he'd most likely kill her. She only managed to stop the tears by clamping her hands down on the armrests as the still silence permeated her soul. It was over.

"Huh," Rydell managed after awhile. "I knew you'd be the first to go."

"You say it like it's a bad thing. But who cares right now. If this run pays as well as you say, none of us can afford to be late."

"Right, let's go."

"Oh, and Rydell."

"Yeah Xan?"

"Take it easy on the _Comet_, me and her have been through a lot together."

"You got it buddy."

The hangar filled with the whine of repulsorlifts straining under the added burden of outrigger containers. The _Wolf_ dipped to port when she was finally airborne. The repulsors on the port side container weren't working the way they were supposed to.

"Mar, give the port container more power."

She picked up the data pad that was linked to the container's repulsorlifts and began to raise the power level until the _Wolf_ was flying as level as she could. Sure as Mynocks seek out power coupling the added weight made the freighters fly like they had dead rancors attached to the hull. The fleet of stock light freighters made it away from Katal without a problem and were soon on their way to the Rebel base at Hoth.

•••

Snow pelted Xan's face as he opened the hatches on the external containers so the Rebels could get to work unloading them. The cold bit through even the heavy duty IPEC gear that they had been issued. Xan was just glad that they were not going to have to spend the night in it. Rydell was making his way through the snow, and by the way he walked Xan could tell that his friend was frustrated by something. Something had probably gone wrong with the _Comet_. Great.

"What's going on? What did you do to my baby?"

"Nothing, the _Comet's_ fine. The base commander just told me that no ships are allowed to leave the system. They think the Imps are going to attack and don't want to risk someone leaving giving them away." Rydell ground out.

"Do you think they followed us?" Xan asked.

"They couldn't have. We took care of the garrison on Katal, and the only system we stopped in was deserted. No the commander told me that a patrol encountered a probe droid, they say it's just a precaution, but they want anybody with mechanical experience to report to the main hangar, they need their T-47s modified to deal with the cold, and there aren't enough of there own technicians to go around."

"So you want me to find Mar, and we'll meet you there."

"Right. And if the Imps attack, they'll probably want us to fly some of 'em too, so don't cut any corners."

"Do I ever cut any corners?" Xan asked with a smirk, the cold wind almost freezing his tongue to his teeth.

"Right, just remind me not to fly any of the ships you and Mar work on."

Xan, Mar and Rydell stood in the middle of the group that was having the modifications procedures explained to them. There weren't many, but Xan knew it didn't make sense to pull soldiers off the line to work on the speeders when they could be used elsewhere to prepare for the coming assault. A sergeant stood towards the middle of the crowd, and Xan could tell by the grease stains on his jacket that he was one of the more senior technicians at the base, either that or he hadn't had a chance to wash his uniform in a long time.

"This job is so simple we could teach trained Kowokian monkey lizards to do it faster that the bunch of you. Because it's so cold on this damn ice cube monkey lizards can't survive and it's left up to you." The Sergeant began and then went on to explain how to insulate the T-47s overproductive heat dissipaters.

Xan and Mar set to work at the beginning of a long line of T-47s, not knowing how many they would finish before the assault started, if it ever started. One thing was certain; if it started the last one Xan worked on he and Mar were taking into the fight.

Noo-gin found Xan and Mar as they were finishing up the third speeder. He sauntered up with his datapad in one hand and a datapack in the other.

"How's things going Xan?" Noo-gin asked.

"Not bad, I just hope Vader complies by holding off a little longer. Apparently they formed us into a squadron with Rydell as the leader. You should ask him about your flying assignment. What news do you have?" Xan asked, knowing that Noo-gin had found a way into the Rebel mainframe.

"Yeah, well, the Imps are already here. But I've been taking a look at the T-47s power parameters, and I designed a new chip to give the lasers more power while maintaining the same speed. I managed to make four chips. One for you, one for Rydell and two for whoever you guys think needs them."

"I'll make sure your ship gets one Noo-gin." Xan said as he and Mar began work on the fourth speeder. "How much longer until the assault do you figure?"

"Soon."

Xan had known the answer. There were people everywhere running around, trying to figure out what and who was going to get onto the first transport off the planet, the one that would have the best chance for survival, even with only two fighters to cover it. Things began to get even more frantic with Rebel pilots breathing down their necks as they got the speeders ready for the cold. Xan didn't even pause when the loudspeaker called the troops to battle stations, and the first flights of speeders were airborne and on their way to do battle with the walkers and crack assault troops of the Imperial Army.

Rydell pushed his way through the frantic crowd towards Xan and Marnist, as the pair worked on one of the last of the T-47s. The whole base shook with the stamps of the mechanized Imperial force, and the roar from the crowd was deafening as the whole of the Rebel force plus some smugglers scrambled for the chance to stay alive. Rydell had to yell in Xan's ear to make himself herd.

"This is your ship Xan. As soon as you and Mar finish the modifications get in. You're leading Two flight of Outcast squadron, your call sign is Outcast five and I'm Outcast one. Got it?"

Xan nodded and slapped his buddy on the shoulder before he went back to work fitting the last set of insulators onto the ship. Mar was already facing backwards in the gunners position when Xan climbed into the cockpit with the helmet on. Xan reached over the back of his seat to clasp Mar's hand. "You ready?" He asked.

"Of course." Mar responded the voice filtering through Xan's headphones as she gave a last squeeze of his hand.

"This is Outcast lead to Outcast squadron. I've worked with most of you before, those of you I haven't I'm Captain Artell. This squadron was thrown together with the sole purpose of buying some time for the rest of the Rebel forces, stay sharp and stay with your wingman. Anything to add Outcast five?"

"Yeah, be fast and keep these ships dancing. Without shields were little more than turbolaser fodder if we fly straight, and good luck." Xan said, as his ship lifted from the snowy hangar floor. "Outcast six, where are you?"

"Right here." Noo-gin's voice answered.

"Stay with me buddy." Xan said as the ship broke into the open. Rydell quickly led the squadron in a large loop to take them into the fight.

"Remember, keep some space between flight elements, it'd be a shame to loose all of Xan's hard work in a few turbolaser sweeps from an AT-AT. I've also received reports the Rogue squadron has found a way to take out the AT-ATs. Our lasers can't penetrate the armor, so we'll have to use the tow cables and go for the legs."

There was a chorus of complaints from voices that Xan didn't recognize, the other smugglers that had been impressed into Outcast squadron. "Enough complaining. Accelerate to attack speed." Rydell called as the squadron of beat up T-47s crested one of the countless snow hills on the planet Hoth.

"Two flight split." Xan called, knowing the other two machines could not keep up with him and Noo-gin as he punched the accelerator to full throttle. Six, we have to clear the STs, before we can go after the ATs."

"I copy." Noo-gin responded as the two ships sped across the snowfield towards the mindless gray instruments of doom. The AT-ATs directed fire in their direction, but those who kept the ships dancing like Xan did remained safe, applying a little side slip here and there and bobbing up and down, it would make it harder for them to hit targets, but it made them much harder to hit, and the big gray bulks could only move so fast, not that the lasers were going to do any damage. Xan's arm hair stood on end as a blast from one of the AT-ATs came close to his cockpit.

"Alright Noo-gin, here we go. The STs are going to be hard to hit. But aim near the neck where the power cells are."

"As ordered Lead."

Xan pushed his speeder into a dive following one of the Imperials two legged walkers. He dropped the crosshairs onto the machine and pulled the trigger, sending blazing energy darts at the attacker. They tracked along the legs and then penetrated one of the power cells. The cell detonated along with the others casting the head of the AT-ST tumbling off across the snowfield.

"Xan, the assault walkers are almost on top of the trenches!" Mar called.

"Set you harpoon then we'll go after one on the next pass." Xan put the small craft into a steep climbing turn. "Noo-gin, cover us." Xan called. "Ready Mar?"

"Of course." She answered.

Again Xan pushed the speeder into a steep dive, with an AT-AT at the center of his view screen. He pulled the trigger raking laser fire across it's armored backside. At the last moment Xan pulled up and reversed direction, fitting the speeder between the walker's legs. The tow cable Mar had fired caught the left rear leg just about the knee joint and Xan quickly began circling the giant machine in the hopes of toppling it. Xan had planned his attack route carefully, by coming in high on the walkers blindside; it protected them from the assault walkers big guns. The height also gave them protection from the scout walkers, and there wasn't an Imperial alive that was going to try and shoot down an enemy flying between the legs of an AT-AT.

"Nice flying Outcast five." Rydell called, as Xan continued to circle the armored behemoth.

"You like that? I call it the Xan-Ho turn. It gives you protection from the assault walker's guns."

"I'm gonna give it a go lead." One of the unfamiliar voices called and a speeder headed off for one of the walkers. He was looking good until his speeder was bisected by one of the walker's knee joints. Xan never saw it, because he was to focused on wrapping up his walker.

"Outcasts, reform on me. We have to give the troops cover so they can withdraw." Rydell called. The squadron formed up and started another run at the attacking Imperials. The squadron headed in on two assault walkers just after Rogue squadron had done the same. The turbolaser fire from the walkers was deadly. Red laser bolts spat from walkers almost as if from the mouth of some nightmare creature. Several ships went down in the pass, one disintegrated under a direct hit, another pair went down because they were clipped and sent spinning, the repulsorlifts driving them into the ground. That wasn't so much a problem though as none of them were IPEC members or even the smugglers that Rydell had hired to get supplies moved. Xan didn't know any of them, neither did Mar, Rydell or any of the people in their organization. But when Noo-gin's speeder took a hit that tore off the canopy a cold claw settled into Xan's stomach. There was a lot of yelling on that pass as military protocol yielded to the carnage that had been unleashed on Outcast squadron.

Xan watched as Noo-gin's ship maid what appeared to a controlled crash, and Xan hoped his friend had survived. Then it came, the order for full evacuation.

"Alright, you herd them. Let's get off this frozen rock." Rydell called.

"I'm going to circle around in the _Wolf_ to see if Noo-gin is alright."

"Alright Xan, but don't take to long, we have to get clear with the Rebels if we stand a chance of getting through." Rydell warned. If Xan and Mar took to long they would be left on their own to face the Star Destroyers in orbit over Hoth.

"Mar, key the comm so I can talk with A5."

"Right." She answered as Xan kept the speeder dancing as they went back to the hangar. "You're ready Xan."

"A5, do you read me?" Xan asked and got a sputtered bleep as acknowledgment. "Good, open the bulk loading hatches on the _Wolf_." Again the droid gave a series of electronic chirps as an answer.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing?" Mar asked in amazement.

"The Rebels are going to want this thing back, right." Xan answered. "We'll just have to find a way to get it back to them." He angled the small craft towards the _Wolf_, and keyed in the landing cycle. "A5, emergency start sequence, Go!" Xan set the speeder down with a slight thud as the _Nova Wolf_'s engines came to life. Xan popped the canopy and his restraints at the same time and vaulted from the speeder and, headed straight to the cockpit of the _Wolf_. "Mar, get to the lower quadgun." Xan shouted.

Within a minute or so the _Wolf_ was airborne; Xan brought the proton torpedoes online as a precaution against roving Imperial walkers. The gleaming new freighter blasted across the snow covered surface of the planet as the two headed back to pickup Noo-gin not sure if he was still alive or not. A group of cloaked snowtroopers stood around the crashed speeder, blasters pointed in its direction as they advanced with caution.

"A5, lower the boarding ramp, I see Noo-gin. Mar open up on the Stormies." Xan barked the orders into the comm as he brought the ship into a hover close to the ground. The scarlet energy darts lanced out from the underside of the ship. Noo-gin broke from the near side of the crashed speeder firing his blaster over his shoulder as he went. Xan held the hover expertly as he waited for Noo-gin to climb aboard. The astromech gave a triumphant whistle when Noo-gin was safely on board. As soon as Xan herd that he put the engines to full power and angled towards space.

"Xan, where are you?" It was Rydell.

"Heading out now, just had some baggage to pick up." Xan answered, knowing the Imps would pursue them if they found out the escaped IPECers were fighting for the Rebels. "We won't be long get clear." Xan said, knowing the longer his comrades stayed in orbit the more likely the Imps were to jump on them.

"No way. You've never left me to be turbolaser fodder and I'm not about ready to start leaving you behind." Ah, Rydell. The closest thing that Xan had to a brother.

"Noo-gin, get to the upper quadgun, we might need to blast our way out of here." It was true, they might have needed to, but Rydell had picked an area so close to the asteroid belt that the Imperials had discounted it as a lane of escape, that was until another freighter decided to fly right into the field. Xan saw it on his scanner, well aft of the IPEC fleet as they made the jump to hyperspace.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Haara was waiting in the hangar when the _Nova Wolf_ and _Whistling Comet_ touched down. She had been sitting in one of the open top speeders for the past two days, only leaving to get food as she waited for Xan's safe return. Now she sprung from her seat, suppressed joy coming to the surface as she ran across the smooth ferrocrete floor to where the _Wolf_ sat. The boarding ramp gave off a hiss as it began to lower, Xan was already on his way down while it was still moving. His shoulders slumped as a sin of fatigue and he wore a flight suit that she'd never seen him in before, but it was him, and he was in one piece. Haara said nothing as she ran to him, and threw her arms around him.

"Where have you been?" She asked kissing his neck softly.

"Around." Xan answered, that was him, no matter how tired or run down he had a sarcastic answer for everything.

"I thought something had happened to all of you when you didn't come back on time."

"The Rebels were attacked while we were there, but we're all back in one piece." Xan answered.

Haara pulled back for a moment. "Did you have to fight them?" She asked.

"We didn't have a choice." Xan answered, lacking his usual defensive tone.

"That's ok, I always wanted to marry a Rebel hero." She smiled and planted a kiss on his lips.

"Tomorrow." Xan said. "We all need some rest."

"That's alright, I want you to look perfect for the holos tomorrow."

•••

Xan woke up the next morning, alone and inexplicably refreshed. Haara was off preparing for the wedding, taking the hours of preparation time that women needed to get ready for major events. She and Rydell's mother had gone and bought a dress at one of the local stores, so it was guaranteed to be expensive. For the lack of anything better Xan put on his IPEC dress uniform.

It was a small ceremony as most of the people who Xan would have liked to invite could no longer be trusted. And because Haara's parents no longer liked Xan because of his abandonment of the Academy. The only people to witness the actual ceremony were the IPECer and Rydell's mother. Rydell was the best man, with Noo-gin giving away Haara because her parents refused to come to Katal.

There was small dinner afterward, not at all how Xan or Haara had envisioned their wedding when they were younger, but none of that mattered. They were with friends, and very much in love with each other, so nothing mattered except that they were finally joined together, a kiss and it was all finished. They hadn't planned a honeymoon in the haste in which they got married, nor was it practical. On any of the civilized resort planets Xan would still be recognized by some being who would turn him into the authorities. Besides, the Artell ranch was a more than adequate location, with amenities that rivaled even the best of or Coruscant.

"Where's Mar?" Xan asked Rydell when he realized that he hadn't seen her in a long time.

"I don't know." Rydell shrugged. "I don't remember seeing her at the ceremony."

"Erh, I think I saw her go to the hangar. She's, erh probably broken hearted." Noo-gin offered.

"Right, well I better go find her." Xan said and heaved himself out of the chair at the head of the table. "I'll be right back." He said to his bride, seated next to him.

Noo-gin went with him, and offered him a thick cigara as they walked. It was a good one too, one of the last few that Noo-gin had left over from his homeworld. They smoked together as they walked, and Xan realized that this was Noo-gin trying to thank him for going back for him. The cigara fell out of Xan's mouth when they entered the hangar and there was a big empty space where the _Comet_ should have been.

"A5!" Xan shouted at the top of his lungs. "A5 where is Mar?" He shouted again. The droid sped around a pile of fuel drums, and rambled in its squeely, clicky, electronic language. Rydell had come to find them by the time A5 had started playing the recording.

A quarter size image of Marnist floated in the air. She was crying as she began to speak. "I'm sorry Xan but I can't stay around now that you and Haara are married. You know I care about and I always will, and I know that you care about me to. I'm leaving because no good can come from my staying, because I know I would eventually come between you and your wife. I just want you and Haara to be happy, and that stands a better chance of happening without me here.

"I want to thank you and Rydell for all the things you two did for me, giving me a place to stay, and getting me into the Academy, and especially teaching me to pilot a ship. By now I'm to far away for you to catch me, and I know you didn't put a tracker on the _Comet_. Don't try following me, you'll just waist you time as I don't even know where I'm going." Even through the astro droids speakers Xan could detect the resigned tone in which Mar had been speaking. "I took the _Comet_ because you have the _Nova Wolf_ now, don't worry Xan I'll take good care of her. Now I must say good bye Xan. I'm sorry. I'll always love you."

Xan said nothing as the image flickered and then disappeared. Mar was gone, and it was all because of Haara. Mar had been the only other person that Xan could trust without a reason of a doubt, and now she was light years away, and there was no way of finding her. She had been his spotter, his co-pilot, his friend, and more. Now she was gone, to probably never see him again.

All of the sudden Xan was empty, the same feeling that had hit him when his father had been exiled, and this time it was on his wedding day. Mar had been the first person that Xan could trust besides Rydell, and now she was gone. Xan's mouth gapped open as a tear rolled down his cheek, she was gone. Gone. Mar was only sixteen standard years old now, and she was venturing off into the Galaxy on her own. He would never see her again, he new it.

Xan became aware of the hand on his shoulder. It was Rydell. Rydell would never abandon him. "I'm sure she'll come back." Rydell said, knowing it was what Xan wanted to hear.

"No she won't." Xan answered pessimistically, but it was the truth.

"Xan, I had a job for you." Rydell began, "But if you don't feel up to it I'm sure someone else can handle it."

"No. I'll go." Xan answered.

"I'll be your spotter." Noo-gin volunteered.

"No!" Xan snapped. "From now on I work alone."

"Come on. I'll give you a briefing and all the information that the Vigo gave me. We've got to plan."

THE END

4


End file.
